Rising Moon, Hunter's Night
by Hearts In Strangeness
Summary: Was originally called Twilight...Sorta. Book I of Under Your Spell Saga. Arc II of In Truth of Our Abilities Series. Bella heads to Forks to get to know her father, but she didn't expect to find love while there.
1. A Last Soiree and The Departure

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, X-Men, Vampire Diaries, Wizards of Waverly Place, Sweep, or Mortal Instruments. They are owned by their respective owners, and I am just using them to satisfy the urge to write this story. I do, however, own the characters Tristelianna Haliwell, Azure Monroe, and Erika and Aura Greenwell, and those characters are not to be used without my express permission - meaning, just ask. With the exception of Tristelianna, I am willing to let the other three be used in another's story, so long as they ask._**

**_Summary: After years of never meeting her father, Bella ends up going to visit him for the first time in her life, where she ends up meeting Edward Cullen, vampire...and the one person whom she will love forever._**

**_Okay, my not quite new Twilight story, as I posted this back in January, and I just recently started it up again, editing the chapters of it that I had up already. However, now I have figured out what I want to do with this story...with the whole series that it's a part of, in fact. For those who are wondering what's going on, I will tell you right now that this story is just one out of quite a few in a sort of super series I have in mind. Technically, on this super series, this is the first story of the second arc of the super series, and it's going to be split into two parts - in fact, at the rate it's going, each story of this series will be split up. For some, that'll be literal - as in, two fics for one story, and there will be a reason for it.  
_**

**_For this story, it will be in two parts, but won't be put into separate fics.  
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**_The Title of the stories parts are:  
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**_Under Your Spell, Book I: Part I - Rising Night  
Under Your Spell, Book I: Part II - Hunter's Moon  
_**

* * *

**A Last Soiree and the Departure  
**

* * *

"Are you sure you still want to go?" Tristelianna Haliwell, one of my and Elena's best friends, asked. I look towards her, playing with the ear bud I'd pulled out when she had managed to get my attention. Not that it had taken a whole lot to do so, as she'd followed Logan, mine and Elena's pseudo-guardian, into the room.

"I'm sure," I said, exasperated, my eyes returning to my I-Pod, watching the name of the song I'd just been playing – Black Velvet by Alana Myles – as I waited for...something to happen. Having packed all of my things into my truck earlier – the very truck that Logan was going to drive for me, as I'd agreed to fly out to my father when he suggested that I do so – I was left with nothing to really do, at least, until tonight. My friends and I were going out, a last soiree in a way.

"Besides, I'm not the only one leaving. Almost everyone else is as well," I added.

"I know that. I'm only asking you because you've been...not yourself since you agreed to go there," Tristelianna said. "I mean, I don't blame you. This will be the first time you and Elena have been separated from each other for longer than one day since you've met. And that's not to mention the fact that this will also be the first time your separated from the rest of us as well."

"Well, people are bound to drift apart," I said, though I didn't believe it. The ties between us, all of us, were stronger than most ties between friends. They were my family, had been since I first came here. Elena was, without a doubt, my sister, even with the lack of blood, and the others were those fun-loving cousins that you didn't want to see leave.

"You and I both know that you don't believe that," Tristelianna said, pushing her hair – a brilliant bluish-purple color – behind her ear. Her clear silver-blue eyes surveyed me, seemingly trying to pick me apart. Not that it would be hard for her, but I could tell she was giving me my privacy, something I was thankful for. Of course, I had the feeling that she was only doing this because the last time she hadn't, I'd been rather mad at her.

"I don't want to go," I finally said. "Or, rather, I'd rather go with Elena. However, I owe it to both myself and my father to get to know him." Tristelianna nodded her head, understanding what I was saying. Unlike with my mother, my father, from what I could tell from the few times I'd talked to him on the phone, was different from her. He also, rather desperately, wanted to see me, having not done so since I was a child.

"Besides, just like I need to do this, Elena needs to do what she's going to do," I said. "And, while I would love to be there for her, I think this is something that she needs to do without me, just like I need to visit my father without her."

"Are you bothering her again?" came another voice. Tristelianna and I looked to the doorway of Elena's and my room, discovering that the person who'd just spoken was none of than Elena.

"I'm not bugging her," Tristelianna said. "I'm just talking."

Elena's eyebrow rose. "Is that what you want to call it," she said, walking over to us. I moved over on the window seat, making room for her to sit. "So, what is it that you've been bothering Bella about?" Elena asked, looking over my shoulder to see what I'd been listening too.

"I'm just making sure she still wants to go," Tristelianna said. "Is that a crime?"

"No," Elena said. "However, asking the question repeatedly is rather annoying."

Tristelianna rolled her eyes.

"If she didn't look so miserable, I wouldn't be asking the question repeatedly," she said.

"I'm not miserable, just...apprehensive," I said. "The only time I've met my father, I was too young to remember. Also, I've told you what my mother said about him."

"The fact that it was your mother that said it should tell you not to listen, and that he's most likely the opposite of what she said," Elena said. I looked over to her. My sister in all but blood, we weren't that different. In fact, for not being blood siblings, we looked more alike than one would think, particularly at first glance. We were both dark haired and dark eyed, about the same height and weight, and with the same white streak in our hair. However, that was were our similarities ended, and changed the longer you looked. While dark haired, my hair was slightly lighter and had a more reddish tint to it, while hers was just a shade under black. She was also olive toned, her skin a light tan color, while I was a pale peach color that showed almost no color to it at all.

I shrugged at her, and, wanting to change the subject, said, "What about you? Are you apprehensive about visiting your family?"

"No, not really," she said. "While I haven't seen Jeremy in years, I have seen Aunt Jenna – remember, she came up four years ago. I get along well with her. Plus, based on what she's said, Jeremy is more than interested in getting to know me."

"What about..." I started to say. I didn't need to elaborate; she understood what I was going to mention.

"From what I can tell, Jeremy doesn't know why I never visited, and they never bothered to tell him," Elena said. "As for running into them, that's going to be impossible. Remember, they're dead, have been for a while."

Had anyone else heard the blasé way of how she spoke about her 'parents', they would have been appalled. But then, the fact was that they knew nothing about her parents, and didn't know that her dislike for them, and the fact that she wasn't sad at their deaths, was well warranted, just like my dislike for my mother was warranted. After all, it was hard to really care for someone who'd thrown you out on the streets because of something that you couldn't help, something that spoke of a huge difference between you and them. It was even harder to care for someone who tried to kill you because of that difference.

"Besides, perhaps I'll be able to find out about my biological parents," Elena said. "I mean, I might be able to find out about my mother, and I can't see my father _not_ coming by for a visit. Of course, the fact that I know that he's my father is probably not known to him."

I stifled a laugh, while Tristelianna did no such thing. Elena smiled at Tristelianna, who shrugged and gave a look that suggested that she wasn't going to apologize.

"Well, I guess, if you two are sure of yourselves..." Tristelianna started.

"Then there's nothing to worry about," Elena said.

"Besides, if you wanted us to change our minds, it might have been better to say something earlier, not the day before we're set to leave," I added, conveniently ignoring that she had said something beforehand. She rolled her eyes at my words, but didn't say anything. Instead, she said, "So, how soon do you two think you'll be able to get ready. It's almost time to go, after all."

"We just need some time to get ready, just as you do," Elena said, motioning to the baggy sweatpants and sweater that Tristelianna was wearing.

"Perhaps we should get that done, then," I said, standing up as I turned my I-Pod off, walking towards the door. I didn't have to worry about fighting Elena for the first shower – we could both take a separate shower, thankfully. While we shared the room, the dormitory bathroom was, strangely enough, situated so that the only thing shared was the bathroom mirror and a his and her sink set.

"All right," Tristelianna said, following me to the door as well while Elena headed to take a shower. "See you when you finish." I nodded, closing the door behind her before heading to take my own shower.

* * *

It was easy to figure out what to wear. After all, I'd only left one outfit worthy of going out in that wasn't strictly for travel. Though, in truth, it was only the top that I had trouble figuring out, as I'd already decided on wearing a pair of dark wash jeans. I had, before finishing packing, eventually decided to leave out a purple velvet blouse with long, wide sleeves and a lace up front. A necklace that held one half of a pair of dog tags – one of Logan's that he'd given me – a pair of gloves that went to my elbows – though it would only be seen if I lifted my hands above my head – black suede, heeled boots, and a thick black jacket finished the look. I left my hair down after drying it, only grabbing a scrunchy should it prove to be windy outside.

"So, how do I look?" I asked Elena, turning in a circle as if to showcase my outfit. She laughed.

"Nice," she said. "What about me? How do I look?"

Like me, she wore dark wash jeans. Unlike me, she wore a white halter that had a Gothic cross design on it, the words 'True love never dies' wrapped around it. A pair of white gloves that went up to her shoulders graced her hands, a necklace like mine – with the other half of Logan's pair of dog tags – graced her neck, and white leather patent heeled books could be seen peaking out from beneath the hem of her jeans. She wore her hair up in a bun, a pair of dark blue lacquer chopsticks holding it in place.

"Nice," I said, a bit jealous, as I could never pull off the white halter like she did. My skin was too pale for it – wearing white clothes in such a large quantity made me look a bit washed out.

"Thanks," she said, giving me a smile as she slung on her leather jacket. "Shall we head down?"

"Lets," I said, grabbing my purse – in which I threw my I-Pod in – and heading out of the door. Walking down the hall and stairs to the living room, I wasn't surprised to see that Elena and I were the only ones ready. Having been among the first to get ready, it made sense that it would take the others a while to do so. I took a seat on the couch to wait for the others, my ear buds back on as I changed the song, this time to The Blackest Lily by Corinne Bailey Rae.

Tristelianna was the first to come down. Of course, I didn't notice it at first, as I wasn't looking at the stairs, but when she came to sit down, I saw her. I felt my jaw drop when I saw what she was wearing, then I shook my head, a slight smile on my face. I should have realized that she would chose something like she did. She excelled at surprising people.

She was wearing a rather short black dress with a blue design on it. Coupled with this dress was a pair thigh high boots. What I supposed was her sweater – at least, I hoped it was her sweater – was thrown over her arm.

"Your going to freeze," I said, shaking my head. She grinned, her smile unrepenting as she took a seat.

"How long before the others are done?" Elena asked. Before Tristelianna could answer, someone else did.

"Don't know, but I'm ready," was the response. We looked over to see our only close male friend, Harry Potter, standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall as his green eyes looked at us in amusement. I took a glance over him, loving his shirt, upon which the close-up of a vampire and werewolf's faces could be seen. I knew that, on the back, it showed the two in full body, about to attack. I'd stolen the shirt to wear so much that he'd gotten me one of my own, in the largest size he could.

"So are we," someone else said. Harry stepped fully into the room, revealing the twins, Aura and Erika Greenwell. Not quite identical to each other, but more so than Elena and I were, the twins both wore the same black dressy pants and same long sleeved,open shoulder shirt. However, where Aura's shirt was light purple with some angel – or fairy, I wasn't sure – standing in front of an orb that was glowing, Erika's shirt was light blue, with two dragons, one a slightly darker blue, the other teal, situated in the shape of a heart.

"Who are we still waiting for, anyway?" Erika asked, looking around, and taking in who was already down there. None of us answered her; there was no need to. It was clear who was still missing. Sighing, she walked over to the couch across from where Elena, Tristelianna, and I were sitting, taking a seat herself. Aura followed, while Harry took one of the armchairs.

It was less than two minutes later – as the song Still Doll by Kanon Wakeshima ended and the song Crucify My Heart by Lullacry began – that those we were waiting for finally showed up. First was Alexandra Haliwell, Tristelianna's 'sister', wearing a white dress that had thin straps, and was the same length as Tristelianna's. A pare of white Mary Jane heels completed the look. She held a thin looking white sweater over her arm. The white wet well with her olive tone skin and dark hair.

Azure Monroe and Hermione Granger-Ravenblood were right behind her. Azure was wearing a long skirt, that was tie-dyed two different shades of purple with hints of blue. A tie died hoodie of blue and brown was worn on top. Hermione a red velvet corset top and dark wash jeans. A sweater with glittering roses kept her arms warm.

Kitty Pryde came down next, wearing a brown skirt with a reddish brown design along the bottom, and a dark green blouse. Less than a minute later, Clarissa Fray walked into the room. She was wearing a pale lavender blouse over a pale pink skirt, her fiery red hair pulled back into a messy updo.

"Are we ready to go yet?" she asked, looking around.

"No, we're still waiting for Morgan," Elena said. Just as she finished saying that, the final member of our group, Morgan Riordan came down the stairs. She was wearing a black halter top and red plaid mini skirt. No one said anything about the scars along her right arm and shoulder that the top didn't cover. Black tights covered her legs, and her black heeled boots had red flames on them.

"Sorry for making you wait, I couldn't find my one boot," Morgan said. Those of us who were sitting stood up.

"So, everyone ready to go?" Hermione asked. "And whose all driving, anyway?"

"I am," Harry said.

"So am I," Aura said. "I don't think we'll need more drivers, unless someone wants to take the position of driver who will leave early."

"Well, I'm planning on staying the entire time," I said. "Plus, my truck is on it's way to Washington right now anyway."

"And my truck's too packed to take that position," Elena said. "I'll barely be able to fit myself in it, much less someone else."

"Mine's the same," Morgan said.

"Do any of us actually plan on leaving early?" Kitty asked. Those of us who hadn't said anything yet thought about it.

"I would actually imagine that it would be a good idea for those of us who have an early flight to not stay for long," Harry said slowly. "Unless, of course, the plan has changed." Said plan being where our soiree was.

"We never actually decided on where we were going to begin with," Elena said. Of course, those words caused for another delay as we hashed out were to go. Not that there were a whole lot of options. Our choices were pretty much Pandemonium, a teen club about two hours away from where we lived, that guaranteed loud, pulsing music, a crowded dance floor, and a lot of interruptions from guys and girls wanted to 'be friendly', as well as the choice to stay out till one in the morning; and Transcendence, a karaoke café that was an hour and forty minutes away from where we lived, that guaranteed a bit more privacy than Pandemonium would, as well as having our ears bleed as quite a few people butchered songs and that closed at eleven thirty.

"Look, guys," I finally said after a few rounds of 'lets go here, no lets go there'. "I have an early flight, and I do not want to be tired when I get to Washington, since I know I won't be sleeping on the plane. And I really don't want to bother with the crowds at Pandemonium. Let's just go to Transcendence."

When I mentioned the crowds that were bound to be at Pandemonium, those who wanted to go there conceded not to. I knew that it was mostly because this soiree wasn't going to be like the others, otherwise, I would have suggested Pandemonium. None of us would be seeing each other for who knows how long. Tristelianna had been right when she said that I hadn't really been away from the others for a long time. In fact, if one counted, longest any of us had been out of each others' company was a week at most, and even then, we were usually in the same area.

And with most of us leaving home... Well, it made sense that we'd want the quieter place to go and have fun in each others' company.

"All right then, let's go," Tristelianna said, leading the way out of the house. We headed to cars, splitting up. Elena, Azure, Kitty, and I piled into Harry's car, me sitting up front with him as the other three sat in back. As we pulled out of the garage, Azure noticed that my I-Pod was still in my hand, though I'd paused it after Morgan came down the stairs.

"Why don't you hook that up?" she said, motioning towards the stereo. Doing as she said, I changed it from the song that it was on – Not Big by Lily Allen – to the next one, which ended up being Highway to Hell by AC/DC.

"Nice," Harry said before he began singing along with the lyrics. "At least we'll have some good music for the drive."

"We'll hopefully have some good music at the café as well," I said.

"Knowing you, you'll probably be responsible for some of said good music," Azure said.

"Like your not the same way," I quipped.

* * *

The drive seem to pass by quickly, mostly thanks to the fact that we distracted ourselves with singing the songs my I-Pod played. After Highway to Hell, two Joan Jett, one Ozzy Osbourn, and one Lita Ford were among the songs that followed before the first country song on the playlist – Austen by Black Shelton – played, which ended up starting the list for other country songs to play.

When we arrived at Transcendence, Harry parked in a spot as close to the door as he could. Luckily, there weren't that many cars there. Most people probably wanted to stay inside – it was wicked cold outside, and I was thankful that my boots and jacket were insulated. I would wonder how Morgan, Tristelianna, and Alex managed not to feel cold, but I was too used to them, and knew them well enough that being out in this weather worked for them.

Walking in, I immediately winced as someone butchered the song they were singing.

"I don't think you're going to last long before you go up there," Elena said.

"I don't think so either," I said, wincing again. In fact, I only followed them to the table to put my purse down before heading to the table where those who wished to sing signed up at. I decided to do Papa Don't Preach by Madonna first, writing it down on the sign up sheet and taking note of who was before me – there were at least three people ahead of my name, based on which song was being sung at the moment. Walking back to my seat, I passed by Tristelianna and Clarissa, who were going to sign their own names up to sing.

"What do you want to drink?" Harry asked as I rejoined the group. It was his turn to pay for the drinks tonight, though it only applied to drinks.

"Large Root Beer," I answered. It was kind of too late for coffee, and, at the very least, soda came with a free refill, so it was worth getting a soda over something that had coffee in it. He wrote it down on a piece of paper. "Oh, and I'll take one of those strawberry swirl cheese cake slices, as well six pounds of that fudge." I dug into my purse to had him some money for the food.

"That fudge does look good," Morgan said. "I'll take some of it as well, three pounds please."

The others gave him their orders, and those who were getting something to eat as well gave him some money for what they were asking for. Once that was done, he headed to the counter, placing said orders, and nodding to something the cashier said. It looked like she was flirting with him. I didn't really blame her if she was – while not overly handsome, Harry was still quite good looking, and his eyes, an intense emerald green, just drew a person in, the wire rimmed glasses he wore doing nothing to hide them.

Too bad for her that she really didn't have a chance with him. He was way to devoted to his two girlfriends.

"So, Harry, did you get her number?" Aura asked when he got back, the trays in his hands loaded down with our drinks and food. Apparently I wasn't the only one who figured that she was flirting.

"No," Harry said, shaking his head at her. "And I wouldn't want it if she had offered anyway. I'm happy with Katie and Luna."

"And I'm sure that both are really happy with you," Erika said, giving her sister a look that stopped anything that she might have said. Aura rolled her eyes.

"Besides, there didn't seem to be anything about me she was interested in," Harry added, giving Aura a look of his own.

"Oh. Do tell," Aura said, leaning into him. I tuned them out then, not really interested in where they were most likely going. I usually did this when it came to things like this. I was most likely going to be alone – I wasn't really planning on ever dating, much less doing anything else – so listening to people hook up or talk about their relationships tended to bore me.

"So, tell me," Erika said to me. "What are you going to do first when you get to Washington?"

"Not sure," I said. "I looked up the area where my father lives at, and, from what I can tell, there really isn't anything to do, at least, fun-wise. The town rather small, and, other than hiking and camping, doesn't hold anything of entertainment. If you want that, or to do any type of real shopping, outside of food shopping, that is, then you have to go to Port Angeles or Seattle. However, one small point towards it is that there is a beach nearby, First Beach. It's apparently on an Indian reservation, the Quileutes, I think."

"But you don't like the beach," Erika said.

"No, I don't care for being sun burnt, there's a difference," I said. Forks and most of the places around it, including First Beach, is usually underneath a cover of heavy clouds. In fact, it's usually raining there."

"Thus meaning that you're less likely to get sun burnt," Erika said. I could tell that she wanted to laugh. I didn't blame her. After all, how many other people had the unique talent of being able to get a sun burn when at the beach, no matter how much sun block you put on?

"It also means that people won't expect you to wear a bikini or a bathing suit," Morgan said.

"Exactly," I said. As I heard the music for the next song start, I turned towards the stage. "Oh, I love this song," I said, before wincing. "Don't like the person singing it though."

"I think you're next," Tristelianna said, also wincing as the singer butchered the song. I thought about what the list had said, and nodded my head, realizing that she was right.

"So what song did you chose to do?" I asked.

"You'll find out when I get up on the stage," she said. I turned to look at Clarissa.

"Won't be finding out what I'm singing until I get up there as well," Clarissa said. I pouted.

"So mean," I said, wincing once again.

"You know, I didn't think it would be possible to butcher this song," Tristelianna said.

"I think any song can be butchered," Clarissa said.

"That's true," I said. I took a bite out of my cheesecake as Clarissa and Tristelianna continued their talk, tuning them out after a while. As the song ended and my name was called, I stood up to applause. While usually in the summer time, my friends and I frequented this place enough that we were well known to everyone else who came here even more than we did.

I had to hold back my snort when I heard someone mention that whatever song about to be sung wouldn't be butchered as the last one was. I also heard a small complaint that the person who had been on the stage before me was signing up for another song as well. As the song played, I sang it without having to look at the screen for the lyrics all that much, knowing the words to it pretty well. Once it was done, I went to put myself down for another song, this time Never Let Me Go by Florence and the Machine. As I wrote down the song I was going to sing next – there four others ahead of me, not counting Tristelianna and Clarissa – I saw what songs that they were going to sing.

I should have realized what song was a good possibility for Tristelianna to sing. As a big fan of Miranda Lambert, it made sense that she would chose her second favorite song, Mama's Broken Heart, to sing. I was surprised when I saw what Clarissa had put down, though. In Your Room by the Bangles would have been the last song I would have suspected her to sing. She was more of the type to go for slow songs, after all.

"Cheater," Clarissa said as I sat back down in my seat.

"Like you wouldn't and haven't done the same," I said. She playfully stuck her tongue out at me. I just took another bite of my cheesecake.

The rest of the soiree passed like this, with Tristelianna, Clarissa, and I continuing to do karaoke while talking with the others, who sometimes joined in with the karaoke as well. We even did some duets; said duets the only time Harry willingly graced the stage. The final song that I did was with Tristelianna and Clarissa, a fun song called Takin' Pills by the Pistol Annies.

Of course, when I wasn't on the stage, I listened to all of the conversations around me, joining in when they turned to what everyone was planning when we got to our destinations – for those of us who had them. Kitty mentioned that she and Tristelianna were planning on stopping by her mother's house first before officially starting their road trip. Clarissa, who was actually coming to work here at Transcendence, mentioned that she was still trying to close the deal on getting an apartment that wasn't too far away from here. Harry, Hermione, and Azure said that, once they got to England, they planned on getting together with Sirius Black to talk about some things that were going on in the wizarding world at the moment, as well as taking a more active part in everything going on.

Alex simply said that she'd gotten a job at some sub shop in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. I was a bit interested in hearing that, as it was the first time she'd mentioned it – I assumed that she'd either stay at the school with Aura and Erika, or go with Kitty and Tristelianna on their road trip. By the looks on the others' faces, I could tell that I wasn't the only one who this wasn't a surprise for.

Morgan mentioned that she'd gotten a job at Practical Magick, a wiccan shop in Widow Vale. I had to wonder what she'd do if she ended up running into her ex-adopted parents, particularly since she'd be doing something that they hated. She'd probably ignore them that's what I plan on doing if I ever ran into my mother. Not that there was a big chance of that; last I heard, she was back in Arizona, and I had no desire to be anywhere near a desert.

Elena's answer, however, troubled me a bit when she mentioned it. I didn't say anything quite yet, though, knowing that the café wasn't the place to talk to he about it. And, by the look on her face, I could see that she knew what I'd be talking to her about once we got home.

The others didn't seem to find any worry about she'd said; that, or they decided to leave it to me to talk to her about. Or, rather, all but Tristelianna decided to leave it to me to talk to her about. After all, Tristelianna most likely knew that Elena was considering, without even having to talk to her. Being the mind reader that she was, it wasn't uncommon for her to 'eavesdrop' on our thoughts, unless I was willing to keep her from doing so, for everyone else. It wasn't like she did it consciously, after all; she kind of couldn't help but hear our thoughts. She couldn't turn off her ability, had she wished to do so. In fact, I was really the only one she had to work to read, though I really didn't hide much from her anyway.

"So, are we ready to leave?" Aura asked after a few minutes silence as we finished our drinks or whatever food we got.

"I think so," Morgan said.

"It's about closing time anyway," Clarissa added.

"Let's pick up and go then," Harry said.

* * *

"So why didn't you mention something before?" I asked Elena as we got ready for bed, my eyes meeting her in the vanity mirror as she brushed my hair, getting ready to braid it, just as I had braided hers already. She sighed, handing me the brush so that she could begin.

"Well, mostly because, up until I mentioned it, I hadn't actually thought about it," she said, shrugging. "I was fully planning on staying at the house with Aunt Jenna and Jeremy, but, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I just...can't. I can't live in that house again. They may be gone, but that house will hold their essence, no matter what Aunt Jenna may have done with the place, and that's assuming she did anything to being with.

"Plus, even if the house has been rearranged, I'm sure that there are still pictures of them on the walls, and I don't really think that I can handle looking at them. They just...hurt me way too much for me to be comfortable around anything that could remind me of them in a twenty-four-seven way."

"So, what do you plan on doing, then?" I asked.

"There are a few inns around the town," she said. "I also remember there being a boarding house that I'm sure I could stay at, at least until I can somehow get an apartment."

"I take it that Aunt Jenna isn't going to be really receptive to you not living at the house," I said.

"No, more like she won't be receptive to me living alone, with no one else there," she said. "Since she's met the owner of the boarding house a few time, she knows him, and knows that he'd take watch me and make sure I didn't get into trouble. At an apartment building, that little fact wouldn't be there."

"Ah," I murmured. "True. How sure are you that you can get a room at the boarding house?"

"Not sure at all," she said. "Though, not from every being full. From what I remember about it, the place actually never had any boarders. Which is why I'll probably lean towards an inn over it. Still, I really should try and get a room there."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Who knows? The owner may have changed and they'll be more receptive towards having a paying boarder."

"Yeah, maybe..." she trailed off.

"So, you at least have a plan on what you're going to do when you get there?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "I should arrive there late Sunday, so long as I don't go too slowly, and don't stop too much. I'll take a room at an inn for the night, sleep, call the next morning to have Aunt Jenna meet me for dinner at the Grill, and then go and see if the boarding house is taking any boarders. If not, then I'll just continue to rent the inn for even longer while convincing Aunt Jenna to help get me an apartment."

"Well, I hope that you can convince her or the owner of the boarding house," I said, finally standing up to head to bed. She'd finished braiding my hair awhile ago, our conversation distracting me from noticing it until now.

"Good night," I said, turning off the lamp next to my bed.

"Night," she said, turning off her own lamp. The room was plunged into darkness then, and it only took me a few moments to fall asleep.

* * *

The next morning dawned way too early. Or, rather, my alarm clock was set too early, going off before seven. Had I not had to get up by then – I would have to be at the airport at a certain time, after all, and there was a bit of a drive ahead of me – I most likely would not get up in time to have food before I needed to leave. My only consolation was that those flying out as well – namely, Harry, Hermione, and Azure – had to get up this early as well.

I carefully got out of bed, seeing that Elena was still asleep and not wanting to wake her up so soon. Of course, Elena could sleep like the dead unless it was the time her internal clock was set to have her wake up, which, once she fell asleep, wouldn't be until the sun was showing, even if it was only a little bit.

Gathering my clothes for the day, and packing up my dirty clothes from yesterday into a bag that I'd take on the plane with me – in a separate pocket than the clean things, of course – I crept out of the room, my bag in hand to put into Alex's car. Alex was the one who offered to take us to the airport on her way to Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Since she was staying in New York, she planned on making a few multiple trips back and forth, instead of bringing everything in one go. Morgan was planning on doing the same thing as well, only she wasn't heading in the same direction as the airport we'd be using.

Heading back inside now that I'd done that, I went to the kitchen, not surprised to see Harry already there, cooking.

"What are you making?" I asked him.

"Just some pancakes, bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs with cheese," he said.

"Sounds good," I said, taking a seat on the bar stool at the counter.

"So, did you talk to Elena?" he asked.

"Yeah. She's got a plan, though, so I'm not all that worried anymore," I told him.

"But why doesn't she actually want to live with her aunt and brother?" he asked.

"Because of the fact that they still live in the same house," I said. "She'd rather not live in the same house that her 'parents' lived in."

"Kind of like how I didn't want anything to do with number four, then," Harry said.

"Yeah, kind of like that," I said. "Only, her problem is a bit less horrifying."

"True," Harry said. "Very true."

Hermione and Azure came downstairs them, drawn by the scent of food that was in the air. Tristelianna followed them, looking like she'd been awake for at least an hour already, which, if I thought about it, was probably true. Her sleeping schedule was strange after all.

"You all ready to go?" she asked. We all nodded our heads. "Okay."

She walked out of the room for a second, coming back in with four book shaped presents. I furrowed my eyes, a bit surprised when she handed one of them to me.

"The others wanted to see you open it, but they're not going to be up in enough time to see you open it and let you leave in time for your planes, so I'm going to 'record' your reactions so that they can see them later," she said.

"Let me finish here first," Harry said.

"I'll help," I said, eager not to be in the spotlight and hoping that I'd be able to open the present somewhere else.

_You know that you won't be getting away, right?_ I heard in my head. I turned towards Tristelianna, sticking my tongue out at her. That was something that I had to admit that I disliked about the rest of her ability. She couldn't just be left with the ability to read minds, no she had to be able to expand it to talking in others minds – among a few other things – and, of course, while my shield blocked her from reading my mind, she could still send messages through it, and talk in my mind, along with send pictures if she so wished. I can block and protect my mind for almost all forms non-physical abilities people might have, but if they wanted to talk to me, I was unable to block it.

At least it wasn't something that would be extremely bad, like being unable to stop someone from controlling my body without my permission.

Helping Harry made the task of making breakfast go much quicker than it would have been done had he just been doing it alone. All too soon, Harry and I were left with the two wrapped packages, as Hermione and Azure had already open theirs. Frowning as Tristelianna kept her eyes on us, we finally opened our present.

It was indeed a book, a photo album to be exact. Curious as to what was in it – particularly since any photos I had were already on their way to Washington, and it was too soon to have any pictures from last night developed, despite the lack of pictures taken – I opened it. And stared at what I saw for a second before looking up to Tristelianna.

"Everyone chipped in to get the gifts," she said. Understanding dawned on me as I remembered the shopping spree we'd all gone on several weeks ago. I'd forgotten about it, despite the fact that I had gotten everyone gifts myself. Since I was only looking at pictures, that were undoubtedly taken in the stores the objects came from, I had the feeling that they either had them delivered to my father's house, or Logan was driving them there right now. Considering that Tristelianna most likely dealt with that part – as she did with what I'd gotten everyone – it had most likely been sent to my father's house.

At least, that's what I suspected happened with the larger purchases. For the small ones, they were most likely packed into my truck, under Logan's care right now.

"Thanks, guys," I said, looking at Tristelianna so that she was sure to catch it. I saw her stifle a smile at how...unenthusiastic I sounded. It was well known to my friends that I didn't like to be the center of attention all that much. It's why I really loved the fact that Elena and I shared a birthday – I could hide behind her and let her have all of the attention.

"Okay," Tristelianna said. "I'll go get Alex up."

"No need," Alexandra said as she appeared behind her sister. "I'm already up and ready to go." She walked over to the counter, grabbing a plate and filling it up with some of the food on the counter. "Just let me eat, and we'll go."

"We still have to eat anyway," I said, motioning to mine and Harry's plates while taking a bite of food.

"I'll go get everyone else up as you finish eating," Tristelianna said. "They should be awake and dressed by then."

"Have fun getting Elena up," was my answer, before I took another bite of food.

"Aura's harder to wake," she said as she left the room.

"That is true," Harry said.

"Yeah, remember that time she almost punched Hermione for waking her?" Alexandra asked.

"That was nothing compared to how she was at Hogwarts," Azure said. "Believe me, I know well on how she was like."

"That's cause you had to share a room with her, isn't it?" Hermione said.

"That, and the fact that our roommates didn't seem to learn not to bug her in the mornings," Azure said.

"Wait, is that why..." I started to ask.

"Yes," Azure said.

"And she still didn't learn?" I asked.

"I know. You'd think she would've, at the very least," Azure said. I rolled my eyes. _Just when you thought they couldn't get any dumber_ went through my mind. Harry, Alexandra, and I finished eating rather quickly, and had put the plates in the sink, heading to the hall just as everyone else came downstairs, looking sleepy and grumpy.

I looked at my friends as I gave them each a hug one by one, saying my good-byes, trying not to cry. Pulling on my coat and taking the photo album that I'd forgotten in the kitchen from Tristelianna, I gave everyone one last smile before walking out of the house and hopping into the backseat of Alex's car with Harry and Azure.

My eyes were firmly looking over my shoulder, stuck on the place that had been my home for most of my life, while I thought about the people inside, the ones that I considered to be a part of my family for the same amount of my life. I didn't turn my eyes away until I could no longer see the place.

Then, and only then, did I look forward, and let a few tears slide down my face as I wondered when I'd see them again. It was an act that I repeated at the airport, when I separated from Alex, Harry, Hermione, and Azure. Boarding my plane, I wondered what would be awaiting me once I got to Washington.

And I also wondered when I'd see my friends again.

* * *

**_Okay, that's the end of this chapter. I hope that you liked it._**

**_As you can see, I've changed quite a bit, added more dialong, and made it a bit less jumpy as the original chapter was like. Of course, I still kept the character's names used, and let people know a bit of what's going on with certain characters without seeming to be out of place.  
_**

**_What each character's mutant ability - as this does have hints of X-Men - and what house they were in while at Hogwarts will be mentioned as the story continues on. However, if you don't want to wait until it's revealed in the story, I'll be saying what their mutant ability and house is in the thread link for this story in my forums.  
_**

**_For now, though, here's a list of those that have been told:  
_**

**_1. Tristelianna Haliwell - Mind Reader/Speaker (More on her ability will be revealed as well, but just think of Professor Xavier for an idea of all that she can do)  
2. Isabella Petrova - Mental Shield (More about her abilities will be mentioned in other chapters)  
_**

**_Playlist for this chapter (These are the songs that Bella is listening to at one point or another in the chapter, even if it doesn't say that):  
_**

**_1. Black Velvet - Alana Myles  
2. The Blackest Lily - Corinne Bailey Ray  
3. Still Doll - Kanon Wakeshima  
4. Crucify My Heart - Lullacry  
5. Highway to Hell - AC/DC  
6. Crimson and Clover - Joan Jett  
7. I Hate Myself For Loving You - Joan Jett  
8. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne  
9. Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford  
10. Austen - Blake Shelton  
11. The More I Drink - Blake Shelton  
12. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert  
13. Country Girl - Luke Bryan  
14. Independence Day - Martina McBride  
15. Thank God I'm a Cowboy - John Denver  
16. Papa Don't Preach - Madonna  
17. Mama's Broken Heart - Miranda Lambert  
18. In Your Room - The Bangles  
19. Never Let Me Go - Florence and the Machine  
20. One Way or Another - Blondie  
21. It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Celene Dion  
22. House of Freaks - Lauren Mandel  
23. Lay All Your Love On Me - Mamma Mia Soundtrack (Movie Version)  
24. Friday Night - Lady Antebellum  
25. Close My Eyes - Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne  
26. Takin' Pills - Pistol Annies  
_**

**_And this is the playlist that Bella listens. Also includes the songs that she does karaoke for/hears being done by her friends. Full playlist may be put up on my forums. Also, a list of songs that she listens to at in each chapter will be posted at the end of the chapter, though I won't list more than thirty songs. If she listens to more than that, in a chapter, then the full list of those songs can be found in my forums.  
_**

**_Please Review, I would love to know what you think of this chapter.  
_**

**_Hearts In Strangeness  
_**


	2. Forks and First Weekend

_**The new second chapter. If you read the previous one I had up, you'll notice that it's different. If this is the first time reading it, then you'll find out what's different to it. This chapter is kind of a filler - I know, it's a bit too soon for one, but there is a reason for it. Oh, there are things from both the book and movie in this. It's not obvious straight away, but you will begin to notice it as the story goes on.  
**_

_**Oh, and there is a bit of quoting from the book in here. However, I've changed enough that it's not straight up the same as it is in the book. I don't think anyone will get mad at me for putting the quote as it was in the book in here, but I figured that it would be better to play it safe than end up in trouble. I'm pretty sure that people will understand why I'm doing this, particularly if you've heard of the problems that have been happening on here.  
**_

* * *

**Forks and First Weekend**

* * *

The plane ride to Washington was long and boring. I tried to get some sleep but it wouldn't come. Instead, as I listened to the song Cry Little Sister by Gerard McMann, I thought about what might be waiting for me when I got to Port Angeles, which was where I was going to be meeting Charlie. I had to admit, I was rather nervous about it. This would be the first time I'd meet the man who was my father, a man I'd never seen before, as far as my memory was concerned. After all, I wasn't even a year old when my mother decided that she could no longer handle living with him in 'the gloominess that was the idiotic town he refused to leave'.

I sighed, making a face as the plane hit some turbulence. I hate planes, and wished that I had been able to take a portkey or even driven. However, I had agreed to fly out by plane, and, while I could have acted taken a portkey and lied to him, I didn't want to do that. He'd gotten hurt from my mother's lies already, plus I was already hiding things from him. I didn't need to have anymore secrets to hide from him. Also, this way, if he asked how the plane ride was, I'd have something to say.

It was raining when I arrived in Port Angeles. I didn't take it as an omen, just unavoidable. As I'd mentioned to my friends, Forks didn't get a lot of sunlight, and, as Port Angeles isn't that far away, it made sense that it wouldn't either. Stepping off of the plane, I was glad that I'd thrown on my water-proof jacket beforehand, as I would have ended up soaked otherwise. As it was, my hair ended up soaked as I hurried through the rain to the awning that protruded from the main building, and my bad ended up partially damp, along with the jeans I was wearing due to the puddles of water that had formed on the ground.

Sighing as I wrung my hair out as best I could, I entered the building. Immediately, my eyes looked over everyone in there, looking for a sign baring my name. Not original, but as I didn't have a clue to what he looked like, it would get the job done of helping me find him while he looked for me. I kind of wished that I had ask for a picture of him when I sent the ones of me to him.

My eyes spotted the sign with my name on it rather quickly. I didn't move yet, though, choosing to study the mustached man holding it instead. Just looking at him, I could see some similarities that suggested being related. While his hair was a few shades darker than my own, his skin was the same shade of pale, and his eyes were the exact same color as my own. He was wearing a police uniform; it seems that he came here straight from work. I had been a bit impressed when he told me that he was the Chief of Police in Forks. He must do the job well to have that title.

Once my perusal was done, I walked over to him, keeping my eyes on him. I knew immediately when he noticed me.

"Bella?" he questioned. I nodded, coming to a stop in front of him.

"Hey, Ch- Dad," I said, giving him a nervous smile as I stopped myself for calling him by his given name. I stood still in front of him, letting him have his own perusal of me, and I saw his eyes zero in on the pure white streak in my hair. I could see his mouth begin to form the question I'd heard thousands of times before, which caused me to automatically say, "Accident."

A part of me wondered why he seemed so surprised to see it, especially since I sent him pictures of what I looked like, but I had the feeling that he had just thought I had colored my hair.

"Shall we go get the other bags I brought?" I asked after a while. The question seemed to knock some sense into him, for he nodded his head and headed towards the baggage claim area. I quickly found the bags that I had actually brought with me, and grabbed them, only to have Charlie take two of the three. I frowned at his back for a second, wondering if he thought I couldn't carry them by myself, then shrugged, not really caring enough to cause a scene about it.

He handed me an umbrella before we walked out of the building, where I was able to open it without getting wet thanks to another awning. Once I had it over our heads, he led us over to a car that proclaimed itself to be a cruiser of the Forks PD. I frowned, wondering why he had brought it, then remembered that he didn't have much else in the way of transportation, and was glad that Logan was on my way here with my truck. With how fast he drove, as well as the fact that he would most likely only stop when he absolutely needed sleep, he'd be here sometime on Sunday, a mere three days away. This meant that I'd have my truck by Monday, so I wouldn't be forced to accept a ride from Charlie or walk to the school.

My bags fit easily into the trunk, leaving enough room for my carry on as well. I took a second to extract my I-Pod before putting it in as well. I could tell that Charlie was confused at the lack of luggage, which reminded me that I hadn't told him about the fact that Logan was driving my truck here, which also reminded me that I hadn't thought of a way on how he'd get back home. I frowned at the insight as I buckled up and began messing with my I-Pod, changing from the song it was on to the next one. Playing the song on a low setting so that I could talk, I set the I-Pod into my pocket and looked at Charlie.

He seemed a bit nervous as he pulled out of the airport parking lot.

"That was it, right?" he asked. The lack of bags seemed to bother him a bit.

"What I brought straight away, yes," I said. He seemed to deflate a bit. "The rest of my stuff is being driven here with my truck."

Knowing that I had things on the way seemed to calm him.

"Oh, there has been some deliveries for you over the last week," he said. They're in your room right now."

"Okay, cool," I said. There was silence for a few seconds, until what else I had said filtered through his mind.

"Wait, I thought you didn't have a car?" he said.

"No, I do," I answered. "I just, well, I didn't think about how much I had to pack until after I did so, and realized that there were just a bit too many bags for me to be comfortable bringing on a plane. So, I asked Logan if he could drive the rest of my things to me, and that ended up getting me to realize that he could just drive my truck to me so that I'd have it. Why do you want to know?" I asked the last bit as I'd noticed that he wince when I mentioned having a truck.

"Well, uh, when you said that you wouldn't have transportation, I kind of... I kind of got a good car for you," he said, blushing slightly. My mind went blank for a moment, then I tried to think of when I said that, only to remember having mumbled it to myself as I wondered how I would get to school if I decided to come live with him for a while when he first asked about it.

"Oh, th-thank you," I said, blushing myself. I felt a bit ashamed that I hadn't told him that I did have a car – hell, I could have gotten out of riding the plane here if I had – and that he had to waste money. "I'm sorry. I should have mentioned it before. In truth, though, I really didn't think about my truck until yesterday, when I wondered how I was going to get all of my bags to me, and I didn't remember mentioning any problems about transportation to you, so I kind of forgot to let you know that I did –"

"I was blabbing a bit, something that seemed to amuse him, based on the chuckle he gave. It was that chuckle that made me stop speaking.

"It's okay, Bella," he said. "I just figured that it would be better to make sure that you had a car when you got here after hearing that. And it didn't cost much to get anyway. It was my friend Billy's truck. He's in a wheelchair now, and didn't have a use for it, so he sold it to me pretty cheap. Actually, he wanted to give it to me for free, but I insisted on paying him for it."

It made me feel a little better to know that it hadn't cost that much. I had the feeling that, when Charlie insisted that he pay for it, this Billy most likely went for the cheapest price he could get Charlie to pay. Then, as I was calming down, wondering what to do with the truck, something else he said made it's way into my brain.

"What kind of car?" I asked. His assurance that it would be a 'good car for you' struck me as a bit odd. It also made me a bit suspicious as to why he was say it like that.

"Well, it's a truck. A Chevy, actually," he said, realizing that he had already mentioned it being a truck before. The tone of his voice gave me the feeling that he liked that I seemed to be showing in it. I wondered if he was hoping that I would drive it or something, which also gave me the distinct feeling that he had no desire to do so himself.

"What year is it?" His body language changed, letting me know that this was the last question he wanted me to ask.

"Well, Billy's done a lot of work to the engine – it's only a few years old, really," he said, dodging the actual question. I hope he didn't think I would give up. It wasn't in my nature to give things up so easily. Plus, a car that needed engine work was either a crappy car, or old. I kind of needed to know which if I was to get an idea of what to do with it.

"When did he buy it?" I asked. He thought for a moment.

"He bought it in...nineteen eighty-four, I think," he answered. That didn't sound too bad, but, as a plan began forming in my mind, I decided that I needed at least one more piece of information before I decided on what to do.

"Did he buy it new?" Charlie cringed at the question.

"Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties, late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly. Well, if it was that old, then it the work it needed made sense.

"You do know, Dad, that I don't know anything about cars, so I wouldn't be able to fix it up if something went wrong," I said. "Plus, anyone who could do that would be wicked expensive as well."

Charlie looked at me, a bit confused at the way that I phrase it. Then he said, "Really, Bella. The thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore."

"I'll have to see myself," I muttered to myself, then said louder, "I'll use it for this weekend if I need to go anyway – or just to get the layout of the town. If it works as well as you say it does, I'll see if Logan wants it. He might like a truck like that, and he's a pretty good mechanic, so if it broke down on him, he'd be able to fix it. How much did you pay for it?"

"Around seventy," he said. "Like I said before, Billy was willing to give it to me for free, so he wasn't all that concerned about price."

Wow, that was cheap.

"Well, I'm sure that Logan will be willing to buy it off of you, if it does work well," I told him.

"I'll be willing to sell it if he wants it," he said. I nodded, and that was the end of the conversation. I turned up my I-Pod, enjoying the Flyleaf song All Around Me as I studied my new surroundings. It had stopped raining, which let me see what was around me without a blur to it. The place was pretty beautiful, if not extremely foreign. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of leaves, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air seemed to filter down greenly through the leaves.

I'd never seen so much green, and I wasn't sure I actually liked it all that much. I had my reasons for that. Green was the main color for the Slytherin house at Hogwarts, which had been the least liked house there. Considering my interactions with many of it's members, both who were at school with me, and who were alumni, it made sense that I wouldn't be comfortable in a place that reminded me of that house. That little fact made a frown appear on my face as I hoped that the house wasn't painted green.

The Nightwish song End of All Hope was just ending, with the song Whoever Brings the Night beginning to play when we pulled up to the house. The first thing that I saw was the truck that Charlie had gotten me. It was a faded red color, with big, round fenders and a bulbous cab. It had a certain charm about it, and I had the feeling that Logan would like it, though I doubted it would go very fast.

I then looked at the house, and was glad to see that it was painted an ivory white with red trim. It stood two stories tall, had have a covered porch framing the doorway, with a few steps leading up to it. It wasn't like the places that I was used to, but it did look nice. I grabbed my carry on bag, as well as the bags that Charlie hadn't, and followed him into the house. The inside was just as nice as the outside, with crème colored walls and wood floors. Charlie showed me around the place, showing me the living room and kitchen. I frowned when I saw the kitchen, looking away immediately due to the bright yellow colored cabinets. I would have to see about painting them a better color at some point.

He then led us upstairs, pointing out the door to his room and the only bathroom in the house. I tried not to think about that last bit too much as I looked to the only other door on this landing – which kind of confused me, because he had mentioned that there were three bedrooms in this house. However, I remembered him mentioning that he might make my room bigger for me during our talks, and figured that he had done so. Walking over to the final door, he opened it and let me see my room for the first time.

I smiled lightly as I took in the obvious changes made to it. The walls were a dark purple color, with ebony wood furnishings. The bed was at least a queen sized one, pushed into a little cubby corner next to another door that, when I opened it, saw to be the closet, which was just the perfect size, not taking up too much space. A good portion of the wall space was taken up by bookshelves, and there were boxes everywhere, so I didn't see the full effect of the room, but I looked the best I could, seeing that there were a total of four windows, not including the ones in the corner, where I saw a window seat as I went near it. I noticed that there was a desk and a dresser framing the entrance into the room when I turned towards Charlie.

"Wow," I said, placing my bags down where I stood. "Who helped you do this?" I couldn't exactly see Charlie doing this alone.

"I asked Dr. Cullen's wife," he answered, placing the bags just inside of the door.

"Wait, was this why you were asking those questions on what I would like my room to look like, and what colors I liked?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "I didn't want you to end up with a room you wouldn't like. And it was a good thing I asked, too. Mrs. Cullen decided to let her one daughter help, and, well, had I not asked, you're closet would probably be bigger than it is right now. As it is, well..."

Those words sounded a bit foreboding to me. They also sparked my curiosity. Walking over to the closet, I opened the door. And then stared at the interior. It was a walk-in, as I requested, but not a normal one. Instead of two rows of rods for me to hang my clothes on, there was, on one side, two rods, one underneath another, three shelves above a set of for drawers, and then another rod, slightly longer than the two I first saw, on the other side of the shelves. The other wall had the same set up, but also had a mirror at the end. An octagon shaped window was at the opposite end, letting light in, while I could see that there were lights on the ceiling for the same purpose.

I had to admit, I was surprised to see it. For what look like a small shape, it was surprisingly roomy inside. I was of two minds about it. It wasn't me – I wasn't the type of girl who loved clothes shopping a whole lot. However, on the other hand, it gave me a good amount of room, and allowed me to hang up more things that I was originally expecting to do.

"Well, it's not too bad," I said. "At least it only looks like it doesn't take up a whole lot of room. That would have sucked if it did."

"Yeah. I was surprised when I saw it myself. For what looks like a small space, it's surprisingly roomy inside," Charlie said. I nodded, smiling lightly at the fact that he said the same thing I was thinking.

"Um, are you going to need any help with all this?" he asked. I shook my head. I would be able to get it done faster without him here.

"Okay, then, I'll just leave you to it," he said. "Um, I'll come get you when it's time for dinner. We'll go down to the Lodge, let you meet a few of the townsfolk."

He left me alone then. I was glad that he did. I didn't like people who tended to hover over you when you were doing something. I had a vague memory of my mother having done it herself, which probably explained why I didn't care for it.

One of the first things I did, after closing and locking the door, was find my speakers and hooking my I-Pod up to them, setting it on the desk when I was done. Changing to an upbeat playlist, I began to unpack. I did the boxes first, followed by the bags I'd brought. I used magic to help me, of course, which made things go faster. While doing all this, I thought about what I'd be facing come Monday, when I started school.

Forks High had a total of three hundred and fifty-seven – soon to be fifty-eight – students. That was definitely more than the Xavier school had, but about a hundred less than Hogwarts. The numbers really didn't frighten me all that much, in truth. What did, though, was the fact that all of these people had known each other since birth; their grandparents had known each other since birth. I was the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, and probably considered a freak in a way, though not the way it usually was. I just knew that I'd be surrounded by people wanting to get to know me. That scared me. I wasn't the type to really care about making new friends – I loved the ones I already had. In truth, I was the type to be a wall flower, happy to have a book and my I-Pod and be left alone with just those two things.

I also doubted that I looked like a girl that they expected to live in a big city as well. I wasn't blonde-haired, tanned, or sporty. In fact, I probably looked like I had lived in a town like this one my entire life. And I definitely was not an athlete. Gym was my worse class, mostly because I could be rather clumsy when it came to that class. My balance had gotten better, particularly when I wore heels, but I usually wasn't allowed to in that class, and I usually had trouble staying vertical. Plus, there was the fact that Hogwarts didn't have a Gym class – though going up and down all those stairs could be considered one – so I had less practice in that class over others.

Once I finished putting away my clothes, I did one more thing. I warded the hell out of my windows and door, making sure that no one uninvited could get in with permission, and also making the glass less likely to break and wall less likely to catch on fire. I'd have to find a time to do the rest of the house later. Then, I sat down on my bed, and took in the entire room, without the boxes blocking my way. It was around this time that Charlie came up and informed me that it was time to go.

I changed the pants I was wearing once I took everything in, uncomfortable with them due to the fact that they were wet. I also brushed and pulled my hair back from my face before heading downstairs, my heels clicking on the floor. Charlie was watching some game on the TV in the living room, but he turned towards me when he heard me coming down.

"I'm ready," I said, adjusting the strap of my purse.

"Okay," he said, standing up and turning the TV off. "Do you want to take the truck or the cruiser?"

"Let's take the truck," I said. I was curious to see how well it ran.

"All right," he said. "Do you want to drive?"

"No," I said. "You know where to go better than I do. And I don't take passengers who try to direct me very well."

"Okay then," he said, leading the way out. I grabbed the umbrella by the door, just in case it started raining again. The truck was load, roaring to life and idling at top level. It didn't surprise me, though, nor did the fact that it couldn't go over fifty-five mph. The fact that the radio was in working condition did surprise me, though. I wouldn't have suspected a truck this old to have a working radio.

The drive to the Lodge, as my father called it, wasn't that long, though it was long enough that he had time to point out a few of the other places around town, like the school and grocery store. Once we got there, I was introduced to several of my father's friends, such as Waylon Forge, and the waitress, Cora.

I wasn't really comfortable with the attention they were giving me all that much, and it showed in my fidgeting. I distracted myself in eating my food, and trying not to be rude while they kept asking me questions. If this was what I would end up having to deal with come Monday, I may just end up figuring out a way not to go to school.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked me as I drove us back home.

"Yeah," I said. "Why you asking?"

"I don't know. You just seemed so quiet and...tense during dinner," he said.

"That's mostly because I wasn't completely comfortable with the attention," I said. "I know that I'll have to deal with it at school when Monday comes, but I'll have time to get used to the idea with this weekend. I wasn't expecting it at the diner place."

"Sorry, I probably should have warned you," Charlie said sheepishly.

"It's okay," I said as we pulled up in front of the house. "Now you know, though."

With that, I headed inside and up the stair, gathering my bathroom necessities for a shower. I took off my boots, setting them next to my dresser, where I grabbed some sleep wear, and heading to the communal bathroom. I tripped at least twice on the way there, not paying attention to my feet as the floor moved on me.

After my quick shower, I studied my left arm with a frown on my face, looking at the scars on it. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse at Hogwarts, had done what she could to heal them, but the fact that most of them had been given by magical means meant that the majority would stay. I was glad that I would always make sure that they stayed covered, though. I really didn't want to explain why someone had carved the word 'mudblood' into my skin, particularly since most people wouldn't know what it meant.

Sighing as I began to brush my damp hair, I forced my thoughts away from the scars, choosing instead on wondering just how well I'd fit in here. I doubted it would be that well. It wasn't really in me to fit in with normal people. I was barely able to fit in with mutants and witches and wizards. The only place I really fit in was with my friends, and they weren't here. I might have felt better if they were, though.

I wondered if I would find someone I could relate to here. Not that I expected to find anyone who was on the same page as me, unless there was a mutant or witch/wizard living around here with me. My brain was too glitched to really expect to become friends with normal humans. Still, I'd give it a try. I really didn't want to be friendless while here – bullies tended to go after loners in most places.

"You done in there, Bella?" Charlie called through the door, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah," I said, putting the brush down, picking up my things, and turning to leave. I tripped over my towel, making me stumble into the door.

"Ow," I said, glaring at my towel as I bent to pick it up. Opening the door, I walked into my room, put my things down, and threw on a movie to watch, not wanting to get lost in my thoughts again. I went to bed right after the movie ended.

* * *

The next day, I decided to explore the town. After finding my sunglasses, I headed down into the kitchen to get something to eat, where I discovered Charlie already making food.

"Morning," I said.

"Morning," he answered. "Would you like some breakfast?"

"Sure," I said.

He handed me a plate of bacon and eggs, and then sat down at the table, finally looking me in the face. He stared when he saw the sunglasses, and the gloves that I was wearing.

"Something the matter?" I asked.

"Why do you have..." he started to ask, trailing off.

"I don't the color yellow, particularly in large amounts. It gives me a headache," I said. He made an 'oh' sound.

"And I take it that the glasses dull it a bit," he said.

"Oh, yeah," I said.

"What about the gloves?" he asked.

"Oh, I just like to wear them," I said, shrugging.

"Okay," he said. I took a few bites of my food.

"Hey, dad, do you have any plans for dinner tonight?" I asked. He frowned.

"Well, I figured that we would get some pizza," he said. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if I could cook something tonight, that's all," I said.

"You can cook?" he said, surprised.

"Yeah," I said, not sure if I should feel insulted or not.

"Oh, uh, sorry," he apologized, realizing how he'd sounded. "It's just that, well, I can't cook much more than what we're eating right now, and yo-_Renée_," he stressed her name, remembering that I didn't have a high opinion of her, and that I no longer considered her to be my mother, "couldn't cook either, though she loved to pretend that she could."

"I remember," I said, thinking about all the 'experiments' that Renée had made before I learned to cook. I really suspected that the only reason why I was still alive was because she always made sure to have fruits and vegetables around. "Well, I can cook. I enjoy cooking, in truth. So, if you'd like to just hand me use of the kitchen and leave me in charge of the food..."

"Yeah, go ahead. Knock yourself out," he said, though he looked slightly worried. I had the feeling that he also remembered Renée's experiments. This time, I really was insulted at the fact that he seemed to think I would be anything like her. Still, I didn't say anything, knowing that he didn't quite mean to insult me like that.

Finishing my food, and washing my plate, I looked through the fridge and pantry to see what there was too use. To my dismay, they were pretty much empty save for the things he could make.

"Okay," I muttered to myself. "Looks like I'll have to go grocery shopping. I guess it's a good think that he pointed out where the store was."

Heading upstairs to grab some paper and a pen, I came back down and wrote out a list what we was needed. Then, I went back upstairs, changed into some suitable clothes to go out in, and came back downstairs, my purse slung over my shoulder.

"Hey dad," I said, going through my purse to make sure that I had what I needed. "I'm heading to the store. See you when I get back."

"Okay," I heard him call. "Wait." I paused. "Uh, here." He handed me a card. "For the food."

"Oh, okay," I said. "But I have money for it myself."

He didn't hear, having already headed back to the couch, and distracted by whatever game was on. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his behavior, but put the card into my purse anyway. I'd split everything between this card and mine, putting the more expensive things on my card. I wasn't sure how much he had in his bank account, but I knew I could afford to get pricey food items on my card.

The shopping took no time at all, and I was back at the house pretty quickly.

"Hey, dad, could you come help me unload the truck," I said as I walked back into the house, putting my purse down, and heading back outside to get some bags.

"Sure," he said, following me. "Wow, how much did you get?"

"Everything needed," I said. "Particularly for tonight's dinner. Oh, and don't worry, I'll put it all away."

"Okay," he said, still looking wide-eyed at everything I'd gotten. As promised, once all the bags were inside, and I'd put everything away, I pulled out the ingredients for what I was going to make tonight. I decided to start out easy for him, choosing to have stake and potatoes for tonight. Once that was decided, I went back up to my room, not needing to start it for at least another five hours.

So, for those five hours were spent playing a game on the Wii that had been sent here. I was glad to see that they also had the foresight to send some games here for me to do so – particularly games that I would play. I made sure to set an alarm, since I would have forgotten about making dinner otherwise.

I could tell, as we ate, that Charlie liked what I'd made. I was glad to know, particularly since I would be doing a bit more elaborate meals later on. Like the previous night, I watched a movie until I felt tired and went to bed.

* * *

Sunday finally arrived. Logan did as well, while I was cutting up the lettuce for tonight's tacos. I finished doing that just as there was a knock on the door. Smiling, I put the knife down, turn the hear on the meat down, and hurried to the door, just as Charlie was opening it.

"Logan," I said walking forward. Charlie, who had most likely been about to ask who he was, seemed to get a look on his face that seemed to say 'this is that Logan guy you talked about?' I didn't blame him for his reaction. I'd never given him a picture of what Logan looked like, and the way I talked about him, I knew my father was thinking he'd be older. And, while Logan is a lot older than Charlie knew, physically, he looks like he's a bit under Charlie's age.

"Dad, I'd like you to meet Logan. Logan, this is my father, Charlie," I said, making the introductions. "Please come in. I'm making tacos." I hurried back to the kitchen after that, as I didn't want to leave the stove alone while it was on. The meat was done within another few minutes, and I walked back out of the room, not at all surprised to see Logan and Charlie there. I was, however, surprised to see them bringing in bags, and then I remembered that why Logan was driving my truck to me to begin with.

I walked outside to grab a few bags myself, but they'd already brought them all in.

"Here's your keys," Logan said, tossing them to me as he came down the stairs, my father following behind him. I had to stifle a giggle as I noticed that my father seemed to be a bit out of breath from carrying the rest of my bags up the stairs.

"Thanks," I said, gifting him with a small smile. "Come, it's time to eat."

The conversation that night was Charlie interrogating Logan, with me trying to stop it. I particularly hated when Logan informed Charlie of how we met. I don't think that Charlie would have ever guessed it, and I had the feeling that, after hearing it, he could understand why I never said anything about it. After all, who would want your cop father to know that you'd been caught stealing from someone. Luckily for me, Charlie didn't reprimand me; instead, he seemed to be slightly glad to know that Logan wasn't a child rapist or serial killer.

Had I been willing to let Charlie know about my mutant abilities, I would have been able to calm and reassure him that nothing would have happened anyway. I would have been able to take care of myself. Not that I said that, and I gave a look towards Logan to let him know not to say anything about it, either.

Once we were all finished eating, I told Logan where to find the bathroom so that he could take a shower.

"So that's Logan," Charlie said. "I expected him to be a bit older."

"He's around your age," I lied. He was actually older, but I wasn't about to say that, because of the questions that were sure to follow if I did.

"How much did you get for the truck again?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Around seventy," he said. "Why?"

"Well, knowing Logan as I do, it would probably be best to get him ready to leave after his shower," I said. "Not only do we not really have room for him here, but he's technically the PE teacher at the Xavier school, and I don't think we should keep him here that long. Plus, knowing me, I'll end up wanting to talk to him all night, and, well, considering that I start school tomorrow, I don't think that would be a good idea. Plus, where exactly would he sleep. This couch isn't exactly comfortable, and there's no guest room."

I left off the most important part of my reasoning, though. I knew that Logan wouldn't want to stay here, even though he'd be loathed to leaving without spending some more time with me, because Logan had night terrors, ones that I doubted he'd want my father knowing about. I already knew that he hated the fact that I knew about them. But more than that, what he hated the most was that he perceived any being around him as a threat, a fact that could have gotten me killed, had I not 'borrowed' his mutant ability of healing.

"Okay, then I guess..." Charlie started to say.

"I'll talk to him, see if he wants to buy the truck from you," I interrupted. "If he does, you two can haggle out a price for it."

"Actually, you can do the haggling. The truck is yours, after all, so any money you get for it goes to you," he said. His tone brooked no argument.

"All right," I said, though I wasn't exactly happy about it. I decided to make it up in some way.

"Oh, by the way, you didn't mention that you owned a motorcycle," Charlie said. "Now, I would like it to be known that I don't like this fact, and that I would prefer that you not ride it while here."

"So basically I should let it rust," I said, giving him a look that said that wasn't going to happen. My look also said that I wasn't going to sell it either. I may make up for the fact that he needlessly spent seventy bucks for no reason, but that wasn't going to be what I paid for it.

"No, just...just don't ride it when it's raining, or the roads are icy," he pleaded. I gave him a nod of consent to his conditions. It wasn't like I was planning on doing either of those things anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

"I'll be moving it into the garage while I'm outside," I said.

"You might want to open the door then," he said. I nodded, and headed back into the kitchen, going through the side door that led into the garage. Opening the door, I took a look around, this really being the first time I'd come in here. There was a washing and drying machine in a cubby behind the door, along with the water heater and two freezers. A toolbox and several boxes were also in the room. Other than that, it was pretty empty.

"Hey," Logan said, startling me as I didn't hear him coming over the noise of the garage door opening. "Your father said you wanted to talk to me."

I nodded, leading him out towards the Chevy.

"What do you think of it?" I asked.

"It looks like it needs some work done to it," he said. I noticed that there was a light in his eye that suggested that he wanted to do said work.

"It's load, and doesn't go over fifty-five mph," I said. "However, it runs pretty good, and the radio works. Plus, you need a way home."

"Pawning it off on me," he said, giving me a smirk.

"Pawning, selling, whatever you want to call it," I said. "Dad bought it for me because I didn't mention that I owned a truck, nor did I think to tell him that you were bringing my truck here. He was offered it for free, but paid around seventy bucks for it."

"For this," he said. "It's a classic; whoever was selling should have tried to get at least a hundred fifty."

"The person selling it is a friend of my father's," I said.

"Oh, that explains it," he said. Pulling out his wallet, he pulled out and counted several bills.

"Two hundred for it, and don't argue," he said. I frowned at him. "Give your father seventy of that, to repay him for what he paid, and keep the rest."

"He told me to keep it all," I muttered as I looked at the bills he'd given me, frowning some more as I counted that exact amount.

"Then use seventy specifically for him," Logan said.

"Okay," I said, sighing. Folding the bills and sticking them in my pocket, I walked back over to my truck, pulling my bike off of it quite easily, and rolling it into the garage. He followed behind me.

"Well, let's go get the keys to your new ride," I said with false cheer. I didn't want him to leave quite yet, despite the fact that I knew that he should.

"Yeah, let's," he said quietly, probably feeling the same way as I was. Closing the garage door, I let him enter the house first and we headed back to the living room. I handed him the keys to the Chevy, and said bye so that he could get on the road before it got any later. Charlie also said bye as well, and I watched out the window as Logan drove off.

Once I could now longer see the taillights of the Chevy, I headed back to the kitchen, putting away the leftovers and cleaning the dishes. Looking at the clock after that, I figured that, since I had to be up for school the next day, it would probably be a good idea to get ready to do so now.

"I'm going to take a shower and head to bed," I told Charlie as I passed by him. "Night."

"Night," he said.

I headed up the stairs after that, feeling knots forming in my stomach as I thought about school the next day.

* * *

_**Okay, there you go. For those who were wondering what's changed about this chapter, it's the fact that, originally, it was too end during lunch on Bella's first day of school. However, the chapter was getting to be long enough without that part, so I decided to separate it. Next chapter will be the first day of school, and it will still end the way that it was when it was a part of this chapter. I'll just mostly be adding to it, particularly in the beginning and middle, to lengthen it.**_

_**Nothing to really note in this chapter, though it did mention a bit on what Logan can do, as well as hint at Bella's power:**_

_**1. Logan - Extremely fast Healing  
2. Bella - able to borrow mutant abilities from other mutants  
**_

_**I'll explain Bella's full abilities later on in the story. Or, rather, she will. You'll have to be patient, though. Of course, if you can already guess what it is, good for you. Just review me with the answer, and I'll let you know if your right or not when I post the next chapter.  
**_

_**Playlist for this chapter:  
**_

_**1. Cry Little Sister - Gerard McMann  
2. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood  
3. When God Fearing Women Get the Blues (Part 1 and 2) - Martina McBride  
4. Dancing Queen - ABBA  
5. For Crying Out Loud - Meatloaf  
6. Made of Stone - Evanescene  
7. Never Go Back - Evanescence  
8. All Around Me - Flyleaf  
9. Cassie - Flyleaf  
10. Supernatural (Acoustic) - Flyleaf  
11. Cassie (Acoustic) - Flyleaf  
12. Get Me Outta Here - Marion Raven  
13. Gunpowder and Lead - Miranda Lambert  
14. Drops of Jupiter - Train  
15. Calling All Angels - Train  
16. Parachute - Train  
17. End of All Hope - Nightwish w/Tarja  
18. Whoever Brings the Night - Nightwish  
19. Kiss With a Fist - Florence and the Machine  
20. Single - Natasha Bedingfield  
21. If You're Gonna - Natasha Bedingfield  
22. What I've Done - Linkin Park  
23. New Divide - Linkin Park  
24. Manic Monday - Bangles  
25. Hazy Shade of Winter - Bangles  
26. Kiss My Country Ass - Blake Shelton  
**_

_**And that's the list for this chapter. These are all the songs that Bella listened to in the course of this chapter, even if it's not mentioned. Oh, quick question for everyone: have you ever listed to both versions of Cassie by Flyleaf? If not, you should, because they are both different. Unlike most acoustic versions of songs that I know, Cassie doesn't have the same lyrics to itself like others do. Oh, and I've changed my mind. I'm going to try and keep the playlists to twenty-six songs maximum.  
**_

_**Anyway, Please Reivew, I want to know what you thought of this chapter, as well as if you've realized what Bella's - and, subquentially, Elena's - mutant ability is. I also want to know the answer to the question I asked.  
**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness  
**_


	3. First Day of School Part I

_**New third chapter. Anyone who read the original second chaper will realize that this was the ending of it, before the rewrite that's up now. The chapter was actually pretty easy to type out, and I was able to make it longer than it was before. Oh, and thanks to Dndchk for the new title to this series. For any readers who are fans of the HP series, you should go check out her Marauder's era series 'They Call Me Ebony'. While there are only two part of it up, she updates the story pretty regularly, and it's really good.  
**_

_**There are several movie quotes and pieces of dialog in this chapter.  
**_

* * *

**First Day of School (Part I)**

* * *

Sleep did not come easily to me. I laid in bed for an hour, hearing when Charlie decided to go to sleep, and still couldn't make myself fall asleep. It got to the point where I was wishing I'd been old enough – or, rather, in a place that wasn't a small town – to get a bottle of Baileys, which had a helpful effect, when mixed with chocolate milk or hot cocoa, to help me sleep when I found myself unable to. It was also helpful in keeping nightmares away as well, when it was needed. I was rather annoyed at my inability to sleep, finally resorting to take a Dreamless Sleep potion.

I hated having to take it. Not only did it taste disgusting, but, much like drugs, if I relied on it too much, I'd become addicted to more. It would also lose potency the more I had to use it. At least I didn't have to take too much of it, and it did what I needed it to do, knocking me out right away.

I awoke to a think fog outside my windows. I frowned, hating the feeling of claustrophobia that ran through me as the greyness pressed against the glass, giving the feeling that there was nothing but it. I resorted to closing the curtains that I'd accidentally left open, shivering in the cold air of my room. To make up for the lack of light that gave me, I turned on the lights in my room, making a stop at my mini fridge to get a water bottle before heading into my closet. I was careful not to trip over the bags that were brought up the previous day.

I wasn't picky on what I wore, just grabbed a long-sleeved blouse and a pair of jeans. I decided to also wear wrist length gloves over my usual elbow and shoulder length ones. A pair of five inch heeled oxford shoes on my feet, and I was pretty much ready. I just needed my jacket and bag. I also threw my ear phones on, seeing no reason not to. Ali Project's King Knight was the first song that played.

Charlie wasn't there when I got downstairs, and I figured that he had already left. It was still a little too early for me to leave quite yet, and I was a bit hungry, so I had a bowl of cereal, wondered what color to paint the yellow cabinets, and took an in depth look at the pictures over the fireplace. Most of them were of me, the ones that I'd sent to Charlie, of which a set of my own copies of the same pics sat in a drawer of my desk. There were, however, a few of Charlie, and some people I figured as his friends. I recognized Cora and Waylon, but everyone else in those pictures weren't known to me, and the majority held the same two men, both with heavy darkly tanned skin. I wondered if one of them was this Billy Charlie mentioned before.

The pictures that I hated, though, were the ones that held Renee in them. The first picture was of her holding me. I couldn't see her face, because the camera was more focused on me, and she was looking at me. However, in the second picture, that was of all three of us, Renee looked happy, but her eyes said otherwise. The final picture was of her's and Charlie's wedding. As with the previous family one, her face was lying while her eyes spoke the truth.

I frowned, wondering if Charlie would mind or care if I put those ones out of sight. I eventually decided that it wasn't worth it. They were hidden enough as it was by all of the other pictures, and he only reason I found them was because I had decided to inspect every picture there. So long as I didn't go looking for them, I could just ignore them.

Still, seeing those pictures left me not wanting to stay in the house much longer, so I cleaned the bowl I used and donned my jacket. Grabbing my bag and truck keys, I headed outside, locking the door with the key that Charlie had handed to me the day I arrived. I waited in my truck for a few moments, letting it warm up as I hooked my I-Pod to the radio, letting the song Lost Northern Star by Tarja play before I pulled out of the driveway.

Finding the school wasn't too hard. Even without Charlie having pointing it out to me last Thursday, I would have still been able to find it alone. It wasn't obvious that it was a school, though; only the sign, which declared it Forks High School, showed what it was. The school itself looked like a collection of little houses, all with red roofs, that were connected to each other by covered walkways, most likely there to help keep people dry. It was kind of hard to see it's actual size, there were so many trees and shrubs that blocked a good bit of it from my view. As I got closer, I could see more, and noticed that three of the buildings were a bit bigger than the others. I took those ones to be the office, Gym, and cafeteria, along with two separate parking lots and a several more little houses that I hadn't seen before.

It was definitely different compared to my other two schools. The Xavier school was nothing more than a two story mansion where our classes were at and the faculty slept, surrounded by three story dorms that mostly resembled mansions themselves, and a large landscape. It too was surrounded by trees, but not that many.

Hogwarts, however, was a large and rather elaborate looking castle, with many towers and turrets, large grounds area, a lake, and a dark forest surrounding most of it, save for a single road that led to Hogsmeade, a magical only village that one could visit on certain weekends if they had their parents, or guardians, permission.

So, especially compared to the schools that I had attended, this school was indefinitely different from what I was used to.

I parked in front of the first large building I came to; as I had suspected, it was the office according to the sign next to the door. I had the feeling that I wasn't supposed to park here, but I figured that it would be okay while I went into the office and took care of any business I would need to do. I stepped unwillingly from my now toasty truck, heading straight for the door in a quick movement. I paused for a moment to take a deep breath before opening it and stepping inside.

I was a bit surprised at how brightly lit and warm it was inside. The office – at least, the part that I could see – was kind of small. It was had a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, and a big clack ticking loudly. Pants grew everywhere in large plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside. An 'L' shaped counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to it's front, cut into the room, leading to another door and hallway on the side I was on.

Behind the counter were three closely cramped desks and another hallway. A large, red-haired woman wearing glasses manned one of the desk. She was wearing a purple T-shirt, making me feel a little overdressed. I stepped closer to the counter, looking at the desk she was manning to see if there was a nameplate, and the red-haired woman looked up.

"Can I help you?" she asked. She sounded friendly, which helped make me less nervous.

"I'm Isabella Petrova, Charlie Swan's daughter," I said, adding the last part in case she was confused. While I knew that my father had enrolled me, a part of me had feared that he might have used the last name I was born with instead of the one that was my legal last name. It appeared that he didn't remember that little tidbit; that, or he actually hadn't said my full name, and they just assumed it was be Swan.

A light of awareness flashed through the woman's eyes when I mentioned who my father was. As I had expected, I was a topic of gossip. I wondered what the main thoughts everyone was having about me were, particularly since I didn't know what Charlie had mentioned about my lack of visits. The only think I figured I could assume going through their minds was that the chief's daughter was home at last.

"Um, I actually have you down as Swan," she said. I sighed.

"Can it be fixed quickly?" I asked. "I'd rather not go to jail."

"Of course," she said, nodding her head as she did just that. Then, she printed out and handed me my new schedule, also giving me a map of the school and another piece of paper. She spent several minutes highlighting the best routes to my classes, as well as explaining that I was to have my teachers sign the piece of paper she gave me, and that I was to bring it back at the end of the day. The only part of that I really listened to was the latter, and that was mostly because I had the feeling that it was how they kept students from skipping out on their first day. It was a pretty smart plan, really, a way of making sure students didn't skip classes that they'd rather not have.

Saying bye to the woman – who mentioned that he name was Mrs. Cope – I stepped outside. It was then that I realized that I didn't ask where students were to park. Luckily for me, the other students had begun to arrive, so I was able to follow them to the student parking lot. As I got there, I immediately knew that my truck was going to stand out. Most of the cars here were older, more like the Chevy that Charlie had gotten me. The only car that could be considered newer was a shiny silver Volvo, and it stood out.

I parked in the first spot available, turning the engine off once I was situated. I didn't immediately get out. Instead, I took a look at my schedule, noticing immediately that, like this school, it would be different from what I was used to. It appeared that I would have every class daily, a new concept for me, as it wasn't like that at either of the other too schools I went too. It left me wondering just how homework was done while here. Then, I took a quick glance at the map, memorizing it as best I could, before throwing it into my bag. I took another deep breath, suddenly nervous. _I can do this_ I thought, trying to dispel the nervousness that gripped me. _No one is going to bite me_.

With that thought, and after making sure I had everything I would need, I stepped out of my truck. I kept my face down as I walked towards the school, only looking up when necessary, in order to keep from bumping into others. My plain black jacket didn't seem to stand out a whole lot, though I could feel people staring at me. Luckily, I found my first class rather easily, and followed two unisex raincoats through the door.

The room was small, with short bookshelves against the wall under the window, and around thirty desks set in six rows of five, facing a larger desk at the front of the room. A podium stood to the side of that desk. The teacher was sitting at his desk, watching the door. I noticed that the two people I followed in had hung their coats on a long row of hooks. Copying their actions, I studied them for a moment. They were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde and the other a pale-skinned brunette. As I had suspected, my skin wouldn't be standing out too much, though, to my dismay, I noticed that it was still slightly lighter than theirs were.

I walked towards the teacher's desk, observing him. He was a tall, balding man whose nameplate identified him as Mr. Mason. He gawked when I introduced myself – not an encouraging response – and stared at the white streak in my hair. However, he signed my slip, handed me a reading list, and sent me to a seat in the back of the room without making me introduce myself – though it didn't really matter, and the other student's attention had been caught, and they were all trying to stare at me. The fact that he had done that raised him up a bit in my opinion.

Despite the fact that I was sitting in the back, the other students still found a way to look at me after the class started. I kept my eye on the reading list that he'd given me while listening to him. The list was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd read all the books before, several years ago when the Xavier class had required it. It was comforting that I knew the books, but boring in that it wouldn't be anything new. I figured that it was a good thing I'd brought all of my old essays with me. It would only take a bit of sprucing up, and I could reuse them, unless Mr. Mason surprised me by asking for something I hadn't encountered before.

The class seemed to go by rather quickly, until the bell rang, signaling that class was over. As I was standing up to leave, an Asian boy with hair as black as an oil slick appeared by my side. I started slightly, not expecting him to move so fast, and held back a frown as I looked him over. He seemed to be like the overly helpful chess club type.

"You're the new girl, Isabella Swan, right?" he asked.

"It's Isabella Petrova, actually," I said. "I prefer to be called Bella though."

Everyone still in the room – which was most of the class – turned towards us. I held back a huff as I hurried out of the room. The guy followed me.

"Well, Bella, I'm Eric Yorkie, the eyes and ears of this place," he said. "Um, anything you need: tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on, I'm your man."

I frowned.

"I'm more of the suffer in silence type of girl," I said. Like what happened in the classroom, everyone around us in a four-foot radius turned towards us. Ignoring them once more, I kept a watch of Eric's face, hoping that I didn't hurt his feelings. I really didn't want to deal with hurt feeling right now.

Strangely enough, however, the smile on Eric's face widened.

"Good headline for the feature," he said.

"Feature?" I asked, completely confused, and a little unhappy. I really didn't like the sound of that...

"I'm the head of the school paper, and you're news, babe," he said. _Oh no I'm _not I thought to the first part. I clenched a fist around the strap of my bag, trying to hold back from hitting him when I heard the second part of what he said. I wasn't his _babe._

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, holding up my hands once I was sure that I wouldn't hit him, and putting a look that seemed to suggest that I was begging a bit. "Okay, first off, don't call me babe, and second, please don't put me in the paper. I really don't want any more attention drawn to myself." Not to mention, I couldn't really tell them anything about myself, not without lying about most of it.

"Whoa, chillax," he said. "All right, no feature. Are we cool?"

"Yeah," I said, putting my hands back down and digging into my bag for my schedule.

"So, what's your next class?" he asked.

Government with Jefferson in building six," I recited as I put the schedule back in place. Unfortunately, it left me without something to look at, and there was really no safe place to look, for curious eyes were set all around me.

"I'm heading to building four, I could show you the way..." Eric offered. I frowned, not sure if I should accept his help or not, then shrugged, figuring that it wouldn't really matter all that much. While I doubted I would get lost in this school, I really couldn't think of a way to tell Eric no, not without sounding like a bitch about it.

So, I let him lead me to my next class.

"So, this is probably a lot different than where you lived before, isn't it?" Eric said. I kind of didn't want to answer him; several people were definitely walking close enough that they could eavesdrop on any conversation I had.

"I mean, different from Arizona, anyway," he added. I almost stopped in my tracks, wondering where he got the idea that I was living in Arizona. Then, I realized that I had mentioned to Charlie that was where Renee had first had us living, right up to the year that we'd moved to Richmond, Virginia when I was six. I didn't have a clue of where she went after that, since it wasn't much longer before she'd thrown me out of the house with the words not to both trying to find her.

"Um, actually, I lived between New York and Scotland," I told him. "While different from New York, it's not that much different from where I lived in Scotland, just a bit more rainy."

"I thought you lived in Arizona?" he said.

"No, not really. I lived there very early in my life, but I mostly lived in New York," I said.

"Why'd you live between New York and Scotland?" he asked.

"Oh, several of my friends were invited to a boarding school in Scotland," I said. "They refused to go without the rest of my friend, so we were all incited as well. Other than summer break, it really wasn't worth coming home for Christmas or Easter holiday, so I stayed there the entire school year. Since the school year is nine months out of the year, I lived there for most of the year, therefore living between Scotland and New York."

"Really," he said. "That sounds interesting." I could tell that he honestly thought that, and could see that he wished he could put the information in the paper. I was glad to see that I was right in believing him when he said he wouldn't do a feature on me.

"It was," I said.

"Did it rain in Scotland a lot?" he asked.

"No," I said. "It would be cloudy a good portion of the time, and it would snow a lot during the winter months, but, for the rest of the time, it was quite sunny."

We reached building six at this point. I was slightly surprised, as I hadn't expected him to actually walk me all the way to the door, just show me the way once we hit building four. It kind of didn't make sense for him to do so, since he would just have to backtrack to his class again.

"Well, bye," I said, turning towards him a bit. I frowned when I saw that his face adopted a rather familiar look, one that I'd seen on the faces of several make students at Hogwarts. It was the face that suggested that they would love to be something more than friends with me. I held back a grimace. I really didn't want to deal with that. Getting rid of admirers wasn't a task I relished much, mostly because most guys were just too hard headed to understand that I didn't want to date them. As for the small population that weren't, well, they were usually the ones that were nice and made me feel bad about turning them down.

"Yeah, bye," he said. "Oh, good luck with the rest of your classes. Who knows, perhaps we'll have some others together." He sounded rather hopeful. In all truth, I couldn't see him being really wrong to hope. In a small school like this, it was very likely that we would have some classes the same. So, I gave him a vague smile, and walked into the classroom.

Like Mr. Mason's room, this one was set up in the same way. I once again walked up to the teacher – an older grandmotherly type woman – to get my slip signed. She didn't goggle at me, instead greeting me warmly and handing me a copy of the book I would need for this class. She also pointed me to a seat in the back of the class. I ended up next to a girl who, before the bell rang, introduced herself as Sylvia Bennett.

The class didn't go by as fast, though that was probably because Government was one of the classes that I'd always been bad in. Thankfully, the class itself wasn't too bad – we just had to read the chapter and answer the questions at the end, as well as some questions on a work sheet that Mrs Jefferson had made, which ended up being our homework to finish when the bell did ring.

There was a fifteen minute break between my second and third classes. I ended up talking to Sylvia during that time, answering most of the same questions that Eric had ask me. Sylvia seemed to be nice, and generally interested in the answers to the questions she asked. However, I didn't trust her a whole lot, since she could be faking being nice. I would see if she stayed that way as the days went by.

My next class was Trigonometry, and I immediately hated Mr. Varner, who was an older teacher who looked like he had a severe scowl permanently fixed to his face. He was, so far, the only teacher who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself when I went to get my sheet signed, as if this wasn't high school but elementary school. Of course, as I felt his gaze on my arse, it was easy to understand why he did so.

Then, when I did introduce myself, he interrupted me, starting an argument with me that I should lie about my name. I just looked at him and told him that he should assume anything is it made him look like an ass, and then pulled out my driver's license, which showed my name being Petrova instead of Swan.

He still argued, saying that my license was a fake, and that I should be ashamed of myself for carrying a fake license around, considering who my father was. He kept going on and on about it. Finally, I told him to call the office, and he would see that I was right and he was wrong. I even invited him to call my father. He called my father first, his face going pale as my father – who I could hear on the phone – told him that I wasn't a Swan but a Petrova by law, and that Mr. Varner should already know this without having to be asked. His call to the office explained why he hadn't been aware of it at the moment.

Much to his shame, the whole class had stayed quiet during all this, and broke out in quiet laughter when he was defeated. It was obvious that Mr. Varner wasn't all that popular. I was given a seat in the front of the class, where he could glare and shoot dirty looks at me easily. I got the feeling that I was now on his shit list, a feeling that increased as he purposely kept asking me questions on his subject. I was thankful that I was a bit better at this subject than I was in Government, as I wouldn't have had the pleasure of proving that I knew the answers to his questions and making him grit his teeth when I answered them correctly.

If it wasn't for the fact that my eyes never strayed from his, he probably would have accused me of cheating and try and give me detention. As it was, he tried to refused to sign my sheet, and it was only the fact that I mentioned that both my father and Mrs. Cope knew I'd been in his class that got him to do so. I left that class knowing that he was pretty much an enemy to me, and hoped that I didn't have to deal with his pigheadedness every day.

My next class was History, my second favorite class in general. Unfortunately, like Mr. Varner, this teacher seemed to have a stick up her arse. Miss Lemech was a thin, drab looking woman whose face looked like it never showed a smile in her life. When I came up and handed her the sheet to sign, she curled her lips in a sneer as she signed her name then also made me introduce myself. Like Mr. Varner, she argued that I shouldn't lie about my name – however, unlike Mr. Varner, though she sneered at me again, she didn't continue to argue after seeing my license, and I was allowed to sit a bit further back from her.

However, other than her general attitude, what made me really dislike her was the condescending way she treated the other students. I particularly hated how she treated the girl two seats to the right of me, Elisha Munday. I finally snapped when she implied that Elisha was an idiot for not knowing something. When she asked Elisha the question again, I answered.

When she sarcastically thanked me for answering the question while calling me Ms. Munday, I told her 'your welcome'. This seemed to set off a chain reaction in her, and she, like Mr, Varner, asked me questions of historically important dates, and telling me to stick to the year only after I said the month and date of the first few. This went on for quite a while, with the other students watching like it was a tennis match, until she finally asked about when the Korean war ended. She tried to say that I was wrong, and had one of the other students look it up. Elisha was the one to find it first, and Miss Lemech was stumped when Elisha read, with great relish in her voice, the same year I'd told Miss Lemech.

The rest of that class was spent with Miss Lemech pouting at her desk while glaring daggers at me. The other students were talking amongst themselves, many of them congratulating me me stumping her. It didn't surprise me that she was just as well liked as Mr. Varner was. Elisha came up to me personally to introduce herself, and talked to me a bit before Eric, who was in this class with me, came to sit next to me. Though he talked to me, I mostly ignored him, choosing instead to look at the faces of the other people. I recognized that most of them were in my previous three classes. I didn't recognize their names, though.

For the most part, those whose name's I did were people who had been brave enough to introduce themselves to me, which was a very small amount. In fact, I could count on one had how many people had done so. Everyone else seemed to just eavesdrop on any conversation I had.

"So, Bella, what was that school you went to in Scotland like?" Eric asked. The question pierced itself through my brain, gaining my attention. I thought for a moment, and then, with careful details, told him about it. I lied a lot, though, when he asked about the classes. After all, I couldn't exactly tell him that they were magic classes. So, instead, I used the classes that I had at the Xavier school – the ones that I took during summer so that I didn't fall behind on my non-magical studies – as an idea of what the classes at Hogwarts were like.

I was lucky that he didn't ask about what the Xavier school was like – then again, I hadn't said anything about it being a school, which would explain why he didn't ask. As it was, I simply said that the schools I went to when I was living solely in New York was much like any other elementary school. So, basically, I lied. A lot.

At least no one realized it, or called me out on the fact.

My last class before lunch was gym. The teacher – a rather nicely buffed man called Coach Clapp – gave me the option of staying out for today's lesson after he signed my slip. I thought about it, particularly seeing that I didn't have the right shoes for it, but decided to participate instead. After all, the girls half of the class was to do volleyball, which is one of the few sports I like to play. So long as I didn't have to run, I'd be fine, though he did seem a bit doubtful in letting me play in my heels.

And I was right. I did hold back a bit so not to send the ball cantering through the wall or into someone's face. In fact, I mostly stayed near the back, helping my team to win the game. Unfortunately, I accidentally hit the ball wrong towards the end of the game – though it didn't make much of a difference, because my team was ahead of the other one. I winced a bit as the ball hit the back of some blond-haired kid.

I saw him flinch as the ball did so, his hand coming up to rub where it hit as he turned towards us. His eyes immediately focused on me, giving me a once over. Like with Eric, I could see that he liked what he saw. Unlike with Eric, his 'appreciation' made me want to go and find the bulkiest jacket I could, and hide within it.

He swaggered over.

"I'm sorry," I said as he got closer. "I didn't mean to hit you with the ball."

"No, no, that's okay," he said, an eager looking smiling crossing his face as he stopped in front of me. "Isabella Swan, right?"

"It's Petrova, not Swan," I said, repeating it for what felt like the fiftieth time today. "And I prefer to be called Bella."

"Yeah," he said. "Hey, I'm Mike Newton."

"Nice to meet you," I said, lying through my teeth once more.

"Yeah, yeah," he said.

Before anything else could be said, a brown haired girl who had been watching as Mike came up to talk to me appeared.

"She's got a great spike, huh?" the brown haired girl said. The look on her face as she gazed at Mike was slightly pathetic.

"Yeah,it's..." Mike said, looking unhappy at the interruption. The girl turned towards me, and I saw that a look of distaste on her face before she masked it into a pleasant expression.

"I'm Jessica, by the way," she said, introducing herself. "Hey, you're from Arizona, right?"

"Uh, no, actually. I lived between New York and Scotland," I said, slightly annoyed. I wondered why Charlie had said that I lived in Arizona, since that was the only way I could think of as to why everyone seemed to think I lived there before coming here. And, strangely enough, I couldn't see Renee bothering to keep in touch with anyone here. None of the memories I had of Renee suggested she ever had friends, just acquaintances and people to use.

"Really," Jessica said, and I could see that she was interested in know what living in New York was like. Thankfully, she chose not to ask what it was like, particularly since I wouldn't have answered her anyways. "How did you live between them?" she asked instead.

"I lived in New York, but attended an elite boarding school in Scotland," I answered. I saw Mike's eye brow rise in interest.

"Aren't people in New York supposed to be, like, really tan?" she asked, her eyes on the pale skin on my face. I barely kept from rolling my eyes, wondering where she got that idea. After all, that question would have been more suitable if she'd asked it had I lived somewhere in the desert.

"Not really," I said. "Not enough sun can get through the smog and buildings. If you want to be tanned, you either go to a beach, go to a fake tanning salon, or buy some of that fake tanning lotion."

"Oh," she said, frowning. I saw her eyes glance towards the gloves I was still wearing. "Do people from New York always wear gloves?"

"No, not really," I said. "It's probably why they kicked me out." The last part was said sarcastically, and I was about to mention that, in truth, everyone had their preferences, some that might appear weird to others, but, before I could, Mike started to laugh. After a few moments, Jessica joined in herself, the look on her face suggesting that she would be up to anything he wanted.

"You're good," Mike said, confusing me a bit. Jessica's laughter calmed down.

"That's so funny," she said. When she saw that Mike wasn't really paying attention to her, but to me, her smile slid off her face for several seconds. I waved bye towards Mike so that the final game of the class could begin, and he walked backwards towards the basketball game that he was playing. I felt a little sorry for Jessica, who had to be reminded to come back to the court before the next match could begin.

I took a quick shower, and grabbed my things from the girl's locker room when the coach let us all go. Jessica showered and dressed quickly, appearing by my side fast enough to startle me.

"Hey, has anyone invited you to sit with them at lunch?" she asked. I shook my head no. "Would you like to sit with me any my friends?"

I thought about it for a moment, and couldn't really see the harm in it. And, while I didn't have any real desire to do so, it would have been rude of me to reject the offer.

"Sure," I accepted. When we were released, she led me towards the cafeteria, which was, as I suspected, the third big building I'd seen when I first arrived. The cafeteria was rather blasé. Flags and a few pictures adorned the white walls, and there were plenty of windows with vertical blinds covering them. Round tables decorated the floor, a long serving area was along one wall, and and another, slightly smaller serving area was a few feet from it.

"We're over here," Jessica said. As she led us over to the table, Mike joined us. I noticed, at the table we seemed to be heading towards, that there were four other people already there. I only recognized Eric and another girl that was in my trigonometry class. Eric and the girl I recognized were talking to each other. As we got closer, I heard what Eric was saying.

"...like a masterpiece, you know," he was saying, "we'll have, like, this crazy pyramid fall from the sky, and then you guys can..."

Mike, who had rushed a bit ahead of me, pulled out the seat next to Eric.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"It's my pleasure, Madame," Mike said courtly. Eric stopped speaking, turning towards us for a moment, and then finishing his his conversation.

"You guys can give each other high five," he said, sounding a bit distracted as he inched closer to me.

"Burrito, my friend?" Mike asked him, stopping his progress and completely interrupting his conversation. The girl didn't look like she minded all that much. In fact, she looked a bit glad for the interruption. Jessica, who hadn't looked happy at what Mike had done for me, sat down in the seat to the left of the one that Mike chose.

"Hey, Mikey, I see you've met my home girl, Bella?" Eric said with false cheer.

"Hey," Mike said, before Eric finished speaking. When he heard the rest of what Eric had to say, he added, "Oh, your home girl?" His tone of voice a incredulous, obviously showing that he didn't quite believe him.

"Yeah," Eric said.

"Yeah?" Mike questioned. "That's..."

Before anything else could be said, though, another boy came up, grabbing the back of Mike's chair and leaning towards me.

"My girl," this new guy said, and, to my extreme aggravation, he attempted to give me a kiss on the cheek; only my fast reflected kept him from doing so. Instead, he ended up kissing the palm of my hand. It didn't seem to bother him much, though; once his lips left my hand, he pulled Mike's chair out from under him and took off running towards the other side of the cafeteria, calling out, "Sorry I had to mess up your game, Mike."

Mike grabbed onto the table to keep from falling completely to the floor, and stood up as quickly as he could, taking off after the guy who tried to kiss my cheek. I watched as they chased each other for a while.

The girls at the table laughed a bit at Mike's misfortune, while I heard Eric say, "Tyler." I got the feeling that was the attempting to kiss me guy's name. As I turned back to the table, I heard one of them shout out 'Yes,' for some reason. The other three girls stood up and left.

"Oh, my God," Jessica said as she calmed down, and scooting closer to me. "It's like first grade all over again. You're the shiny new toy." She giggled a bit at that, but I could tell that there was no humor in her voice. If anything, she seemed a bit jealous at the attention that was being given to me.

At that moment, another girl came up, holding a camera in her hands.

"Smile," she said, quickly snapping a picture before I could say anything. The flash blinded me a bit, and I blinked a few times to clear my eyes.

"Okay," I said as I did so, confused as to why she was photographing me.

"Sorry," the new girl said apologetically, and I recognized her as being in my History class. "I needed a candid for the feature."

I had the feeling that Eric hadn't told her that the feature of me was canceled, and opened my mouth to inform her, nicely, that it wasn't going to be needed. However, I forgot that Eric was sitting next to me, and he spoke before I could.

"The feature's dead, Angela. Don't bring it up again," he snapped, making her flinch. I frowned at him for his rude behavior, but he didn't seem to notice as he stood up.

"It's okay, I just..." I started to say, trying to explain exactly why it wasn't going to be happening. However, before I could finish, Eric interrupted me.

"I got your back, baby," he said. I was once again struck with the need to hit him. I mean, I told him not to call me 'babe' so why did he think that calling me 'baby' would work? He left before I could say anything, though, much to Jessica's amusement, if her light laugh was anything to go by.

"Guess we'll just run another editorial on teen drinking," Angela said, sounding disappointed. I felt a bit guilty. It seemed that, in a town like this, there really wasn't anything worth writing.

"You know, you could always go for eating disorders," I said. Noticing Jessica looking pointedly in my direction – I hadn't gotten a lot to eat and the fact that I was rather skinny probably made her think that my mentions of eating disorders was for a reason. "Or you could go with drug abuse, or even speedo padding on the swim team."

The girls at the table laughed, though I could tell that it was for different reasons. Angela's laugh was thoughtful, while Jessica's was...well, I got the feeling that she mostly thought the ideas were funny, but not worth writing an article about. It also seemed that the other girls still at the table agreed with Jessica on that as well.

"Those are actually some good ideas," Angela said, looking thoughtful. Jessica's laugh stopped. "Particularly the last idea. That's a good one."

"Kirk. Right?" Jessica piped in, nodding her head like crazy.

"Yeah," Angela said.

"That's exactly what I thought," Jessica said.

"We're talking Olympic-size," Angela said. At that moment, something out of the corner of my eye distracted me – a group of people heading towards the door to come in.

"There's no way. He's so skinny. It doesn't make sense," Jessica continued. I tuned the conversation out completely, looking at the door. As it opened, I fought to keep from stiffening as I finally got a good look at them.

The first two to walk in were an extremely beautiful and attractive looking blonde, tall and statuesque, with legs that seemed to go on forever. She was the type you expected to see gracing the cover of Sports, Illustrated, swimsuit edition, while also hoping that she'd also appear as the centerfold of a Playboy Magazine. I had the feeling that she had been the star of many wet dreams for the boys of this school, and, by the look on her face, she either know or suspected that as well.

The guy who'd walked in with her – and was now throwing his arm around her in a polite show of possessiveness – was big, a few inches taller than her, and muscular looking, like a serious weight lifter. His hair was dark colored and cropped closely to his head. As he smiled at the blonde, my sharp eyes noticed that he dimples in his cheeks.

The next two were also a boy and girl couple. The girl was the opposite of the blonde. She was short, with dark hair cut in a pixie like fashion. However, she wasn't any less beautiful. The male with her looked like he could be related to the blonde girl. His hair was about the same color as her's, and he was just as tall. He was also slightly leaner than the other male, though still muscular. He looked tense as he walked behind the other two, though I saw a smile cross his face as he spun the dark haired girl in a circle, the smile disappearing as he tucked her to his side. A look of reassurance crossed the girl's face when she noticed his tenseness.

The final one was male, who was lanky and less bulky than the other two, with untidy bronze-colored hair. He seemed to be a bit more boyish than the other two, who looked as if they belonged at a college instead of a high school cafeteria. He was also the most handsome compared to the other two as well. In fact, he kind of stole my breath away, which, at the moment, I didn't consider to be a good thing.

However, for all the ways that they were different, they were also the same, and I didn't mean their unnatural beauty. All of them had dark eyes, with purplish bruises underneath, as if they suffered from a sleepless night or a broken nose. Of course, I knew that the former was more true than the latter. I knew that they definitely weren't suffering from a broke nose. As for their skin color, well, they were all paler than me.

All of those things marked them for what they were, and I only had one thought going through my mind as my eyes stayed on them: _What the hell were vampires doing in Forks?_

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_**Okay, there you go. Hope you enjoyed that. I added a bit more description to her classes, as well as expanded the dialog for some of the characters. The two OC characters mentioned in this chapter will be mentioned again later on as well.**__  
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_**There was noting mentioned about mutant abilities in this chapter.  
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_**The playlist for this chapter is smaller than the ones of the previous two chapters:  
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_**1. King Knight - Ali Project  
2. Wasted Youth - Meatloaf  
3. Everything Louder Than Everything Else - Meatloaf  
4. Lost Northern Star - Tarja  
5. Monster - Lady Gaga  
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_**As I said, it's the shortest playlist for the story so far. Of course, that's because Bella is in school most of the day, an she's technically not supposed to be listening to music while in school. Other chapters that take place during school won't be so limited as this one is.  
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_**Please Review, I really want to know what you think of this chapter.  
**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness  
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	4. First Meet, First Day of School, Part II

_**This was the original third chapter when I first put up this story. With the rewriting I've been doing for this story, and this ended up being changed into being the fourth chapter instead of the third. Now, if you haven't bothered to check out the story when you got chapter updates for the second and third chapter, then you probably haven't realized that the first three chapters have been completely rewritten a bit that they don't resemble how they were when I first wrote the story, so you should go reread them before you read this chapter. Also, language translations for non-English words and phrases is at the bottom.  
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_**Edit Note 10-20-12: Thanks to bellibella for letting me know the actual translations for the French used in this chapter. From now on, any French phrasing done in this story will be done with their help.  
**_

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**First Meet (First Day of School, Part II)**

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My eyes stayed on them, watching them as they crossed the cafeteria to an empty table next to one of the windows. It was a good thing that they'd chosen a table somewhere behind Angela, as I couldn't take my eyes off of them, completely tense as I studied them. For some odd reason, the more I looked at them, the less they seemed to be a threat. They hadn't tried to attack anyone, nor did they seem to be considering it. Plus, from the way they'd been ignored, they had been hear for a while, and I hadn't heard of anyone missing or being found dead around the town. Once that thought went through my mind, I finally calmed down. I got the feeling that they were different from other vampires like themselves.

I continued to looked at them to my leisure, as they weren't looking in my direction, or seem inclined to do so. For the first time today, I was free to look in a direction without being worried about meeting a pair of curious eyes. I frowned as I studied them. None of them were moving, which struck me as being sloppy. They could at least make it look like they were eating, even if they couldn't. If I was an actual human, and not a witch or mutant, they'd be in trouble.

I was curious as to who they were, though I kept quiet about my curiosity at the moment.

"Who are they?" I finally asked, turning towards Angela and Jessica. I saw Jessica look towards the table I had been looking at. However, based on the look on her face, I could see that she probably figured who it was that I was talking about. Angela also looked behind her towards the group I was talking about.

As Jessica and Angela looked at the table, I saw the youngest looking one look towards us. He only looked for a second, his dark eyes flickering towards me afterward. I raised my eye brow, not at all feeling guilty for being caught looking at them. He held my gaze for a second, then looked away. Still, in that second, I had seen that his face held nothing of interest. In fact, his actions reminded me forcefully of Tristelianna's actions, mostly those she would make whenever someone thought her name. I had a strong feeling that he was a mind reader, at the very least.

Jessica and Angela both giggled when they saw him look over to us, and I saw that they were embarrassed to have been caught staring.

They're the Cullens," Angela said. The last name sounded rather familiar to me, and I had to work in order not to show a sign that I recognized it. Not that it would have been a bad sign. If they were connected to the very Cullen I was thinking of, it meant that I had even less to worry with them about than I was originally thinking, a good thing, in all honesty.

"They're Alice, Edward, and Emmett Cullen and Jasper and Rosalie Hale," Angela continued. "They kind of keep to themselves."

I didn't doubt it, though I did doubt that everyone else knew that actual reasons for that.

"Yeah, cause they're, like, together, together. I mean, Alice and Jasper and Emmett and Rosalie. And they live together," Jessica piped in. Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of a small town. It wasn't surprising, though. No one here seems to have every attended a boarding school on a long term basis like I have.

"They don't share any blood, do they?" I asked.

"Rosalie and Jasper do; they're twins," Jessica said. "But, other than them, they're unrelated."

"Then it's not too surprising that they would pair up," I said, shrugging. The other two girls stared at me, as did the rest of the table.

"You don't find it...unnatural," Jessica said. I shook my head.

"No, not really," I said. "But then again, I've also spent most of my time at two different co-ed boarding schools. And at the one I went to in Scotland, one of the first things we're told when we arrive is that whatever 'house' you're sorted into is going to be your 'family'. And, since you see your house members pretty much day and night, it's makes it all the more true. And, more often than not, people pair up with others who are in the same house over pairing up with someone whose in a different house."

"Really?" Jessica said, and I could tell that she was surprised to learn that. I nodded, looking back over at the Cullens. I noticed that the bronze-haired one – the one I suspected to be a mind reader – was moving his lips a bit. I got the feeling that he was talking to the others, telling them what we were taking about. After all, that's kind of what we would use Tristelianna for, particularly if she caught someone talking about us. It's a good way of knowing of someone was suspicious or knew about us.

Of course, this time, his ability wouldn't help him with me. I'd automatically block it, after all. I had to wonder what he would do when he realized that he couldn't read my mind. Would he tell his 'siblings' or would he hide it?

"Yeah," I said, in answer to Jessica's question. "Which ones are the Cullens? "They don't look related..." _particularly because they are not_ I finished what I was going to say in my head.

"Oh, they're not," Angela said. "Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties." And that right there was all the proof I needed on who they were. Carlisle Cullen was well known in the wizarding world, because of the fact that, though he was a vampire, he did not follow traditional vampire roads, and, instead, chose to help save lives, something that no other vampire seemed to want to do. He was also famous for choosing to drink animal blood instead of human. However, I didn't, and I don't think that anyone else did, know that he now had a coven of his own. I wondered where he found other like minded individuals.

"They're all adopted," Angela continued.

"They look a little old to be foster children," I commented, curious to know what the story on them was. Or, rather, what everyone else thought the story on them was, since it was doubtful that they'd let the real story out. I don't think they'd be living here if they did.

"They are _now_," Jessica said, and I clenched my fist in anger at her implication that she thought me an idiot to say that. "Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett are all eighteen, while Edward and Alice are seventeen." Basic translation: three seniors and two juniors. "However, they've all been with Mrs. Cullen since they were, like, seven and eight. From what I know, Mrs. Cullen is, like, Jasper's and Rosalie's aunt or something."

"That's nice of her," I said. "To take care of them all, when she's so young and everything."

The look that passed over Jessica's face suggested that she didn't agree with me.

"I guess so," she admitted reluctantly. I had the impression that she did not care for the doctor and his wife, and, with the looks she kept giving their children, I got he feeling that the reason was because of jealousy. After hearing Jessica give in, one of the other girls at the table snorted. I looked over to her.

It was the only blonde at the table, a girl who, if I was remembering correctly, had been in my history class. I didn't know what her name was, and, based on the disdained look she was giving me, I really didn't seem to care if I ever learned her name.

"What, Lauren?" Jessica asked her.

"Please," Lauren said, looking straight at me. "You really think it's _nice _of her?"

"Yes, I do," I said, looking Lauren straight in the eye. It seemed to make her uncomfortable, but she plowed on with whatever else she was going to say.

"The only reason why she's doing it is that she can't have kids of her own," Lauren sneered, as if that little fact lessened Mrs. Cullen's kindness.

"So?" I said. "That just makes her an even better person. After all, she could be bitter and hateful towards children, but, instead, she chosen not to , and is caring to those who need it. People could learn from her." My mother could learn from her. I wondered what people would do if I kidnapped her...

I kept eye contact with Lauren, challenging her. Lauren's lips pursed, but she didn't say anything. I could hear everyone around the table gasping at my action, and I got the feeling that Lauren was the undisputed 'queen' of this group. In fact, one could probably say that everyone always backed down to her. I had no intention of doing that, though. I wasn't the type to back down for things I thought and believed in, and every fiber of my being was saying that whoever Mrs. Cullen was, she did not deserve the harsh words spoken by Lauren.

I don't know how long this 'challenge' went on for, but, finally, Lauren looked down, much to the surprise of the others. Red-faced, she stood from her seat and stalked out of the room, tripping over the legs of the chair that Mike had been sitting on earlier.

"Oh, my God," Angela said, looking amazed at me.

"That is the first time I've ever seen Lauren back down," Jessica said, equally amazed. I shrugged, then looked back at the Cullens. My eyes ended up meeting the dark-haired girl's for a moment, and I saw her smile in a sort of thankful way towards me before she looked away again, seeming to ignore everything around her. Still, I knew that she had either heard what I said to Lauren, or the bronze-haired boy had told her.

"Have they always lived here in Forks?" I asked, dismissing Lauren from my mind. This seemed to impress the others as well for some reason, and it took a while before anyone answered me.

"No," Angela said. "They moved down from Alaska two years ago."

I nodded, my eyes still moving on them. As I continued to look, the bronze-haired one looked towards me once again, his face expectant. I had to work hard not to smirk as I realized what he was about to do. Just as I suspected, I felt a slight brush against my mental shield. When he failed at getting into my mind, I wasn't able to hold back my smirk anymore as his face grew frustrated. I felt like opening my mind up for a second, if only to go '_na, na, na, na, you can't read me_', but I resisted the urge, figuring that it would be a bit too childish to do. Instead, I decided to 'memorize' what his attempts felt like against my shield, as each attempt was different, even if someone held the same abilities as someone else.

Like Tristelianna and Professor Xavier. Both of them held very similar powers – in fact, I couldn't think of a single difference between what the two could do. However, where as Tristelianna's ability was like warm water and barely discernible – in fact, part of the reason why I didn't mind opening my shield to her was that her ability was down right comfortable to feel brushing up against my mind – Professor Xavier was different. His was a cold, gel-like feeling, which wasn't the most comfortable feeling at all.

The bronze-haired boy's, however, was like a feather, making me feel a bit ticklish as it swept over my shield. Out of the mind readers that I knew, his was the most solid approach to my shield.

"Which one is the bronze-haired one?" I asked, looking at him again. He was pouting at his failed attempts into my mind. He also looked a bit puzzled, and I had the feeling that he didn't know why I had been smirking earlier.

"That's Edward," Jessica said. "He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good enough for him." She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I got the feeling that she'd asked him out and been turned down by him a few times. It wasn't something that surprised me; as a mind reader, he probably heard everything she was thinking, and was probably turned down by it.

However, I believe that it was a good thing. I mean, it not only saved her from being hurt later on when he would break up with her because she was human, but it was a lot safer this way as well – he wouldn't be tempted to drink her blood, particularly if it was the heat of the moment. And she wouldn't be able to fight him off if he tried that, either...

I bit my lips to hide the smile that threatened to show upon the first thought of her being turned down. Looking at him again, I noticed that he was smiling as well, a clear sign that he'd heard what we were talking about. I had to admit, even if only to myself, that he had a nice smile. Once that thought ran through my mind, I looked away, and tried my best not to look at that table again. While I didn't think it was a bad thing that I thought he had a nice smile – as a vampire, I didn't really have to worry about my mutant abilities getting in the way of anything – I didn't really think that it would be a good idea for me to be attracted to him.

After all, he seemed to be happy to be alone, and I doubted I was his mate, and I wasn't willing to attempt to find out, mostly because I didn't want to end up hurt in the end. And, other than his looks, I really knew nothing about him. For all I knew, we would have nothing in common, and if I wanted to be with someone, I would at least like to have some common things with them.

The only time I looked back toward that table for the rest of lunch was when they all left, throwing away their uneaten food. Another frown came to my face at that, since it seemed to be such a waste. They really should come up with a better plan than wasting food like that.

"The bell's going to ring soon," Angela commented as we stood up to throw away our trash. "What class do you have next, Bella?" she asked me as we walked out of the cafeteria. I dug out my schedule.

"Advance French with Beniot," I said.

"Well, I've got History, so I'll see you later," Jessica said, heading in the opposite direction we were. Angela looked at me.

"You managed to get into that class as well?" she asked, adding, "I'm in it, too."

"Shall we head there, then," I said. She nodded, and lead the way to the class.

"By the way, what do you mean, 'You managed to get into that class as well'? I asked.

"Oh, well, there are only three periods of French classes here, because the Spanish ones are considered to be the more popular – or, rather, easier – classes to do. And, in order to get into the class after lunch, you have to have pretty good grades, and be able to speak French a bit already. It's the only advanced class offered here in the school, and it's technically supposed to be an only senior class," she explained. "I'm the only junior in the class right now, in fact, though I guess, if your in it as well, I won't be anymore."

I smiled at her.

"Well, I'm bilingual, so languages come pretty easy to me," I explained. "I also have several friends who live in France, so I tend to be able to practice the language quite a bit as well."

"So you must be really good at speaking it," Angela said.

"oui, je le suis. Et je suis tout aussi bon dans plusieurs autres langues," I said, showing off my French skills.

"Pouvez-vous m'enseigner quelques unes de ces langues ?" she asked, speaking in French as well.

"Certainement, dîtes moi juste quelles langues vous aimeriez apprendre," I said.

"Cool," she said, switching back to English. "I really wanted to learn other languages as well, but they only offer French and Spanish here. And, while I tried to get to take some at the community college, they don't offer online classes for beginners in the other languages."

"Oh, I'd hate it if that happened," I said. "Does the ones that they offer online classes for need those beginner classes?"

"No, it's not required, but you do have to have some kind of knowledge about the language if you want to learn it," she answered.

"That makes sense," I said.

"True," Angela said. As we neared the door to the classroom, Angela suddenly paused, look that suggested she just thought of something important coming over her face.

"Oh, I probably should mention this," she said. "In this class, people are paired up at the beginning of the year. Whoever you're paired up with his your 'partner' for the duration of the year, meaning that you not only work on things with them in class, but you're expected to have conversations with them, as well as work on any project given in class with them," Angela said. "Now, last year, there was an uneven number of people, but now that you're here, well, the person who was left without a partner is going to be use, unless Ms. Beniot decides to put you with me."

She looked a bit apologetic for not having mentioned this before. However, I got the feeling that, based on the look when she mentioned that someone had been left without a partner, it was someone that she thought I'd be uncomfortable around.

"So, who is my possible partner?" I asked.

"Jasper Hale," she said. Of course, I thought. It made sense as to why she thought I'd be uncomfortable. I got the feeling that no one human ever felt comfortable around Jasper.

"Lovely," I said, giving her a small smile. I'd be able to handle it, although...

As an idea struck me, I saw that we were about to pass by the restrooms.

"Can you give me a minute?" I asked, coming to a stop in front of the girls.

"Yeah, sure," Angela said. "I'll wait here for you."

"Thanks," I said, smiling towards her. I walked into the bathroom, glad to discover that it was empty. Heading into a stall and locking the door so that no one saw what I was doing, I fished my wand from where I'd stashed it this morning – in my invisible arm holster.

"_Cuero mi olor_," I recited, tapping my wand on my head. A wind-like sensation developed around me, before a bodysuit feeling ghosted along my skin. Then, the feeling ended, and I put my wand away, stepping out of the stall and smiling at my reflection. While the spell I used was more for hiding a person's scent from animals, I was sure that it would at least dim down my scent enough that it wouldn't bug Jasper. At least, I hoped it did – this would be the first time I used it around a vampire.

"Okay, ready to go," I said as I rejoined Angela. We continued on to the room, separating after hanging up our coats. She walked to her desk, which was situated in the front, next to a girl with a bad perm. I, on the other hand, walked up to the teacher's desk. Ms. Beniot was a lovely but strict teacher, laying down the rules to me upon being introduced, and after signing my slip. They were rather easy to follow – being a French class, it was expected that everything I did was to be done in French, from talking to doing my work.

As Angela had warned me, my partner was going to be Jasper. While she mentioned that she had originally thought about putting me with Angela – something that she said loud enough for Angela and her partner to hear, which resulted in a smile from them – after seeing my scores in my previous classes, she decided that I could handle being put with a senior. The smile that had been on Angela's partner's face turned into a scowl at that.

I was directed to go sit in the seat next to Jasper, who was in the back of the class. I had the feeling that he hadn't quite been listening to what we were talking about, because he looked vaguely surprised that I was heading towards him. Then, as he seemed to remember how this class worked, several more emotions crossed his face. First, he tensed, panic easy to see. Then, he forced himself to calm down, looking resigned. I saw him stop breathing, and frowned. I wouldn't be able to know if my plan worked if he wasn't breathing, and, while I knew I should be glad that he was taking precautions so that he wasn't tempted to attack me, it did me no good not to know if the spell worked.

So, once I was sitting down, I turned towards him, holding out my and and said, "Salut. Je suis Bella, et je serai ta nouvelle partenaire dans cette classe. Ravie de faire ta connaissance."

He frowned, but answered me back. "Je suis Jasper. Tout le plaisir est pour moi," he said, shaking the hand I held out lightly; I could feel his icy cold skin through my gloves, but didn't flinch. Instead, I gave him a smile, and relaxed, watching out of the corner of my eye as he took another breath, preparing to hold it again, only to pause.

A considering look crossed his face then as he took another breath, and then another. He finally calmed completely after the third breath, and I knew that my plan had worked.

Ms. Beniot called order to the class then, greeting us. She went straight into the lesson, spending the first ten minutes talking before handing out some worksheets. She told us to complete them, and that, once we were finished, to do something quietly. We were allowed to talk to our partners for help, so long as we were quiet about it; I also got the feeling that we would be allowed to talk to our partners after we finished the worksheet as well, though she didn't quite say it.

However, I didn't really need help on the worksheet, finishing it within a few minutes of receiving it. I noticed that Jasper worked just as quickly as I did from the corner of my eye, but he didn't seem to be all that willing to talk to me, so I decided to do my own thing. I dug through my bag, taking out a crossword puzzle, and, after taking a quick glance towards the teacher, snuck one of my ear buds on, turning my I-Pod on. Gone with the Sin by H.I.M. Began to play, at a low volume.

As the song ended, and I finished my puzzle, I noticed that Jasper was looking at me as I put it away. I realized that he must have heard the music begin to play.

"Quoi ?" I asked.

"Je ne pense pas qu'elle voulait dire qu'on était autorisé à écouter de la musique durant le cours.," he said.

"Elle ne l'a pas non plus explicitement interdit," I answered back. He chuckled.

"Qu'es-tu en train d'écouter ?" he asked.

"Un groupe s'appelant H.I.M. Ce sont les initiales pour His Infernal Majesty," I said.

"Quelle chanson écoutes-tu ?" he asked.

"J'écoutais une chanson appelée 'Gone With the Sin' mais maintenant j'écoute 'Love You Like I Do'," I answered.

"Le groupe chante dans quelle langue ? Et dans quelle langue les chansons sont-elles chantées ?" he asked. I frowned at him, unhappy that he would ask the one question I wished he wouldn't.

"Anglais," I said, pouting.

"Je suis certain qu'il serait préférable d'écouter quelque chose en français, non ?" he said. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Instead, after another quick look at the teacher, I changed the song to one by a French artist known as Alizee.

"Voilà, maintenant j'écoute une musique appropriée à un cours de français," I said as the song Moi...Lolita began to play. He chuckled, shaking his head, and returning to the book he had been reading. I finished putting my puzzle away, pulling out my own book. I noticed him looking at the title before I did. Looking at it myself, I held back a laugh, choosing instead to wait to see if he would make a comment on it. Actually, I was expecting him to do so, and, just as I figured, it didn't take him long to say something.

"Hungry for You. Est-ce un livre sur les vampires ?" he asked. I couldn't help but chuckle as he realized right away what type of book it was.

"Oui. Mais c'est aussi vraiment très différent de la majorité des livres de vampires, car dans celui-ci la raison de leur existence n'est pas surnaturelle," I said.

"Oh. Alors pour quelle raison sont-ils devenus des vampires ?" he asked.

"Une expérience scientifique ratée," I said. I saw him holding back a laugh as he turned away, leaving me to my reading. I got through two chapters before the bell rang. I put the book away, and switched off my music, pulling the bud from my ear. Putting it away, I grabbed my bag and headed towards the door, grabbing my coat. Angela was waiting for me right outside the door.

"Wow," she said. "You actually managed to get Jasper to talk." I realized that she had been watching me when she said that. I hadn't really noticed.

"If it wasn't for the fact that I saw how he was with his family, and that he keeps to himself, I'd say that you make it sound as if he doesn't talk to people often," I said. Angela laughed a little.

"So, what do you have next?"

"Biology II," I answered, without having to look at my schedule. I studied it in the last look I had done.

Angela laughed, confusing me. I looked at her.

"So, basically, we not only have another class together, but it's also one where an elusive Cullen is partnerless," she said. I laughed once she said that, understanding what she had found funny earlier.

"Which one is it this time?" I asked. I had the feeling that it would probably be one of the ones who were in our year this time, meaning either Alice or Edward. I ended up right when Angela told me that it was Edward. I didn't get to say anything because, at that moment, we'd arrived at the door. Stepping inside, I headed straight for the teacher, though I still noticed who else was in the class. I recognized almost everyone, not seeing a face I hadn't seen before.

As I passed by him, I saw Edward look at me, his eyes – a color that was dark enough to show that he would need to feed soon, but still light enough that there was some color to them, a color that almost looked brown in the light – showing that he had realized that, as I was in the class, I would be end up being seated next to him. He started clearing the table so that I would have room to sit down. Just as I was passing him, I felt a breeze from an air vent hitting me, and I watched as he stiffened, his now completely black eyes turning towards me. He seemed confused and hostile, and I frowned. I couldn't figure out why he was acting like that. The spell to hide my scent should still be in effect, at least until I took it off, so he shouldn't be acting the way he was, as if he had gotten a full dose of it.

Not that I expected him to have any reaction to it, beyond the normal reaction vampires seemed to have. I have been told, by some, that I have a rather nice scent, a floral one, but not one that seemed to attract more attention to me than they already would give me. So I was puzzled over Edward's reaction to it.

Looking away from him and continuing towards the teacher, I pulled down my shield enough so that Edward could 'hear' what I was about to think.

_'If you even think of trying to attack me, you will regret it'_ I thought towards him, my shield going back into place once I was done. Once Mr. Banner had signed my slip, I turned, heading towards the table I would share with Edward. Looking at him again, I could still see the hostility on his face, but his confusion was even stronger. And it was easy to understand why: after all the trouble he had trying to read my mind during lunch, it made sense that he'd be confused about why he was suddenly able to read my mind now.

I felt the light feather touch to my shield once more. I frowned, noticing that it was much more insistent than before. Apparently, the small taste to my mind had him wanting to get into it again.

I didn't introduce my self. He was still tense, and not breathing at the moment. In fact, he hadn't been breathing when I had turned around. The only movement from him was the fact that he was still trying to get into my mind, though one couldn't really call it a movement. He was absolutely, completely still, and I had the feeling that he wouldn't be moving until it was time to leave.

When the bell rang and the class started, I did my best to ignore the male next to me, taking notes on what Mr. Banner said. Still, between his insistent attempts to get into my mind, and his lack of movement, I couldn't help but continually peak at him from the corner of my eye. As I gave him another perusal, I realized that, without his two brothers around, he wasn't as slight as I thought he was.

The entire class went by like that, and as his insistent attempts soon began to irritate me. By the time the bell was going to ring, I'd had enough.

_'STOP trying to get into my mind, Edward!'_ I mentally shouted, removing my shield again so that he would hear. He jumped, surprised, and looked at me again. I was pleased to see that the hostility was gone from his face, though the confusion that took it's place wasn't all that welcome. I really hoped that he didn't try to confront me, and I was given a chance to get away sooner rather than later when the bell did ring. Grabbing my things, I hurried to get away. However, before I could get far, his hand grabbed my wrist far too tight; it would have probably ended up broken had I been a regular human. As it was, I'd probably have a bruise.

"What was..." he started to ask. I put my face into a politely puzzled look, and he stopped whatever he was able to say, shaking his head.

"Nevermind," he muttered, releasing my wrist. I resisted rubbing it, knowing instinctively, that he would feel bad about it.

"Sorry," he added, as if realizing that his behavior was deplorable.

"Are you okay?" I asked, as if I hadn't already been aware of what was wrong. He nodded his head.

"Well that's good," I said. "I'm Bella. It's nice to meet you." I held out my head for him to shake.

"Edward Cullen," he said, shaking my hand lightly before letting go. He seemed to be a bit distracted.

"Okay then," I said, turning to leave the room once again. I got the door this time before he stopped me. Angela, who was waiting for me, looked just as confused as I was.

"So, what class do you have next?" he asked.

"Mythology," I said, curious as to why he was asking. I looked over to Angela, mouthing, 'go on without me' to her so that she wasn't late to her next class. She nodded her head, leaving as I turned back to Edward.

"May I walk you to your next class?" he asked. "As an apology for grabbing you as I did."

"Sure," I said, though it sounded like a question. He smiled, held out his arm, and led the way to my next class. The stares that had been on me all day seemed to double as they realized just who it was that was walking with me. I wondered what would happen when they got over their shock, and just how fast the rumors would flow. I also wondered just what would be said, and how many people would come up with the idea that I had to know the Cullens, especially when the fact that I had been able to converse with Jasper quite easily got out as well.

He seemed to be itching to ask something specific, and seemed to be fighting himself to keep from doing so. I was about to ask if there was something he wanted to know when he spoke.

"So, how as your day been going?" he asked.

"Okay," I said, shrugging. "But that's not what you really want to know, is it?"

"What makes you think I wanted to ask you a specific question?" he asked.

"You weren't hiding it well," I said. We arrived at the classroom at that moment, and paused outside of the room.

"Well, here you go," he said, avoiding answering my question. "It was nice meeting you."

He let go of my arm and hurried away. I watched him leave, a frown on my face at his peculiar behavior. Shaking my head, I entered the class, heading towards the teacher as I'd done in the previous classes. Mr. Molina seemed nice, greeting me as he signed the paper and directed me to my seat for the class. Jessica, who was also in this class and in the seat to my right, leaned over, about to say something when the bell rang, and Mr. Molina stood up, a silent demand for attention. Jessica pouted as she straightened.

Mr. Molina started his class with a welcome, and informed everyone that we'd be starting on Celtic myths for today. He handed a stack of books to each desk, instructing the person in front to take one and pass it back, and then started talking about the subject. After I'd taken a book and passed the stack behind me, I let my mind drift.

I began to wonder about Edward's odd reaction towards me. More than that, I wondered what it was that he was going to originally ask me. A million different questions ran through my mind as I tried to think of which one he might have asked. It wasn't until I thought about him asking me to 'accompany' him to his car – which, after first, amused me slightly – that I froze ever so slightly, an image of how he had acted at the beginning of class running through my mind.

He had become rather hungry – more so than he was before class – once some remnant of my scent floated over him. While I had distracted him with letting him into my mind, a part of him had probably still hungered. While he hadn't gotten a full blast of it, what bit he did had been able to affect him, quite badly in fact. It worried me, and I silently told myself to make sure that I always placed my spell on myself, particularly around him. If only a small bit of my scent affected him like that, I really didn't want to know what it would be like if he got the full blast of it. In fact, I really doubted that it would be a good thing.

With that thought, I tuned back into Mr. Molina, who spoke his lesson with great passion now that he'd gotten off of what to expect from these myths and legends. It wasn't all that boring to sit there and take notes on the subject of some battle known as Moytura. When he looked at the clock and saw there there were only three minutes left of class, he assigned up to read about the battle of Moytura, both parts, as well as to read the chapter before it, which was nothing more than selected information from something called The Book of Invasions.

Jessica all but pounced on me once the bell rang.

"What was _that_?" she asked, her voice incredulous.

"What was what?" I asked.

"You know, _that_. Edward Cullen, walking you to this class. Does it ring any bells?" she said.

"He was just being a gentleman," I said, shrugging. "I've got to head to the office, and get this turned in, so I'll see you tomorrow."

I hurried away after that, hearing her unhappy farewell as I walked in the direction of the office. It wasn't a long walk, as the classroom actually wasn't that far from it. I ended up using the back door, the one that I had seen when I had first entered the room before, right next to the one hallway. I glance down it showed that it led to the nurse's office. I heard Mrs. Cope talking to someone, mentioning that something wouldn't be possible. Looking towards her, I was slightly surprised to see Edward standing at the desk. Suddenly, her words made a bit more sense to me, and, when he caught sight of me, I rolled my eyes at him.

_'Coward,'_ I thought towards him. His eyes widened slightly, and he quickly said good-bye to Mrs. Cope, hurrying out of the office my way of the other door. I could tell that Mrs. Cope was taken aback by Edward's quick escape. I stepped up towards the counter, holding out my signed slip.

"Oh, hello dear," she said. "Have any trouble?"

"Other than with Mr. Varner, no, not really," I said.

"Oh yes, sorry about that," Mrs. Cope said. "I managed to let the other teachers know, but he didn't listen when I told him earlier." She sighed. "Perhaps now he'll learn to listen to what I say."

I held back a chuckle at her words.

"Have a nice day," I said, walking back out of the office and heading to my truck. As I got in and backed out, I felt eyes on me again, ones that I hadn't felt before. A look around showed that no one was staring at me with the intensity these eyes were doing so. Shrugging, I joined the line to leave the parking lot, thinking of what would be waiting for me once I got home.

* * *

I did my homework first when I got home, despite knowing that there would probably be quite a few e-mails from my friends waiting for me. I hadn't answered any of them, not yet. Since there wasn't really anything to say – at least, I felt that there wasn't anything to say – I hadn't bothered opening them. If there was something really important, I knew that they'd either call or text me.

Once I was done with my homework – which was fairly easy to do – I started dinner, while, at the same time, wondering how to convince Charlie to let me rid of the horrid yellow cabinets. I really didn't want to always have to wear sunglasses if I wanted something from in there. The task of dinner was rather mindless, so I ran up the stairs and grabbed my I-Pod and it's speakers, filling the kitchen with the music of Within Temptation, starting with the the song Utopia.

For dinner, I decided to make something with the fish that Charlie had informed me was in the freezer in the garage. I didn't bother trying to figure out what type it was – I wasn't really all that good doing that. Instead, I pulled out what I would use, and brought it inside with me. After defrosting it in hot water, I removed the head, guts, and scales, then wrapped it up in foil with some seasonings and lemon juice, put it on a tray, and threw it in the oven.

For the side, I made a salad, one that was mostly made up of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, chopped carrot slices, avacado, and cucumber. I left out the blue cheese crumbs, since I wasn't sure that Charlie would like it. However, I did put those, some sunflower seeds, and a few other salad additions to the side, so that Charlie could add what he wanted to it.

I decided to have dessert ready as well. I pulled out a frozen cheesecake I'd gotten, putting it into the fridge to keep cold until it was time to eat it.

With the fish still cooking – and knowing that it would be a while before it was done to perfection – I finally decided to take care of any e-mails I had from my friends. I also planned on letting them all know about the fact that there were vampires here, and that I just might eventually meet Carlisle Cullen – if he was the very Dr. Cullen that they were talking about as the 'kids' father.

As I had known, none of my friends were impatient to know what was going on, nor were they wondering why it was taking me so long to answer. I had the feeling that would change once I gave them my news, but, right now, it was okay, and everything was calm from them. In fact, I didn't even get an e-mail from everyone. I had to admit, I was a bit concerned when I saw that Elena was one of the few who didn't e-mail me, but I figured she was probably thinking like I was, that it would be better to wait until she had some news to tell. That, or at least until she was truly situated. She probably wanted to start her e-mail saying that she was now living wherever she was going to be living.

After sending everyone my news – via mass e-mail – I went back down the stairs, pulling out the fish from the oven, and setting it on the stove to cool off. Charlie arrived home then, coming into the kitchen.

"Smells good, Bells," he said. "What did you make?"

"Fish and salad," I said. He sniffed the air, a look of appreciation on his face.

"Sounds good," he said as I got the salad from the fridge. "You know, you're going to spoil me if you continue to make such good food."

"It's nothing, really," I said as I began to place the food onto the table. "I like cooking, and, at least here, I don't have to share the kitchen."

I grabbed two plates from the cupboard, as well as a fork. Handing one plate and a fork to him, I muttered, "Dig in," as I sat down.

"Who did you have to share the kitchen with before?" he ask as he pulled two of the pieces of fish on his plate and then scooped out some salad, adding some of the sunflower seeds, bacon bits, and ranch dressing to it.

"Harry," I answered, making my own plate. "He loved to cook just as much as I do."

There was silence for a few minutes as we ate a few bites. Then, Charlie asked, "So, how long do you plan on wearing sunglasses in the kitchen?"

"I'll be wearing them for however long those cabinets are painted yellow. No offense Ch-Dad, but it gives me a major migraine looking at it," I said. "Which is why I wanted to ask you if I could paint them over this weekend?"

"Are you willing to do them alone? 'Cause I planned on going fishing this weekend, but if you need the help..." he started.

"No, I can do it alone," I said. _I'd actually prefer to do them alone_ I thought to myself, but didn't voice out loud. I didn't think that saying it would make him feel all that happy – in fact, it would probably hurt his feelings. Still, it was the truth, particularly since I could use magic to speed the whole thing up.

"I can surprise you with what color I do," I continued. "Don't worry, I won't do something you won't like."

He still looked unsure.

"Don't worry, Dad. I can do it, just you wait. When you come back from fishing, it'll be done, and I'll be making something delicious for dinner," I added. That got a smile out of him.

"Well, if your sure," he said.

"I'm sure," I said, and we continued to eat in silence. It was as we were finishing eating – he had another two pieces of fish – that he asked his next question.

"So, how did you like school? Did you make any new friends?" he asked.

"School was...school," I answered. "Um, I have a few classes with a girl named Angela, and most people seem nice. But, other than Angela, I can't exactly say I really made any friends. I just made acquaintances, mostly. A girl named Jessica did invite me to sit at her table at lunch, though, and I met some of her friends."

"Angela...Angela Weber, right?" he asked. "I nodded. "She's a nice girl. Minister's daughter, takes care of her twin brothers from her mother. And the Jessica you met was Jessica Stanley?" Another nod. "She's an okay girl. Doesn't get into too much trouble, but follows the wrong girl around that does. Who else was at the table?"

Um, Eric Yorkie, Mike Newton, and some bi...girl called Lauren," I said, quickly correcting myself on the last bit. "And those are the only names I caught. None of the others were nice enough to give me their names."

"Um, I'm not all that familiar with Eric enough to say that he's a good kid, but his parents are good people. Micheal is a good kid, though. His parents own the sporting good's store just outside of town. They make a good living off of all the backpackers who come through here," he said. I nodded. Once we'd finished eating, I stood and brought out the dessert. Charlie look appreciative at it at as gave him a slice.

"It's still sightly frozen," I told him.

"That's okay," he said, taking a bite.

"So, do you know the Cullen family?" I asked.

"Yes, I do," he said. "Mrs. Cullen was the one who helped do your room with her daughter Alice, and Dr. Cullen is a great man."

"The kids seem nice ,but they don't seem to fit in all that well," I said. Charlie surprised me by being angry.

"People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, making ten times the salary he gets here," he continued, getting louder as he spoke. "We're lucky to have him – lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all those kids are well behaved and polite.

"I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them, but they're all very mature. I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them, which is more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should: camping trips every other weekends. Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk."

"Whoa, down, down Dad," I said. He looked at me strangely, though he didn't say anything. "I guess I can see where I get my fierce defending people from," I commented.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, during lunch, as Jessica was talking about them, and telling me about Mrs. Cullen, I mentioned that it was nice of her to take care of all the kids when Lauren said something very unkind about her," I said. "I kind of got on her case about it."

"Lauren... do you mean Lauren Mallory?" he asked.

"Not sure, but probably," I said. "Particularly if she seems to be a popular girl who things she's a queen."

"Yeah, Lauren Mallory," he said. "Troublemaker. I got called out to her house three times last year for disturbing the peace."

"And she still didn't learn not to throw a loud party," I said, rolling my eyes. "Like I said, she gave off the impression that she thought of herself as a queen. Not that it worked with me; I made it clear I wasn't going to back down from her. As for why she said it, I get the feeling that she doesn't like the fact that the girls are prettier than her, plus I wouldn't be surprised if she tried with all three guys, and they turned her down. I definitely impressed everyone else, though.

"As for what I thought of them, personally, I found the two I met nice, if not a bit nosy. I just noticed that they kept to themselves for the most part. They're all also very attractive." I added the last part as an after thought.

He laughed. "You should see the doctor. A lot of the nurses have trouble concentrating when he's around," he said, still chuckling. However, when he caught sight of my face, he stopped.

"They have trouble concentrating," I said. "That's not good. They could end up messing something up and causing serious harm or a death to someone."

He frowned. "I never thought about it like that," he admitted.

"It's not your fault," I said. "If this was happening someone other than a hospital, I'd probably think of it as funny as well. However, in a hospital, a single mistake could be dangerous."

Dessert finished rather quickly after that. I put the rest of the cheesecake up into the fridge, cleaned the dishes, and went upstairs, where I took a shower and got ready for bed. I spent the rest of my time waiting until it was worth going to bed letting my hair dry and watching a movie – I chose a horror one. Once it was done, I went to bed, wondering what the next day would bring.

* * *

_**Okay, as you can see, I changed it from being Jessica being the bitch to Lauren. I figured that, unlike the books, I'd have Lauren being a more in your face attittude towards Bella, who is willing to to return the favor a bit. I'm going to have Bella be more willing to confront her because it was one of the things that irritated me about Bella in the books - the Bella in the books pretty much let people walk all over her and say whatever they wanted. In this fic, it won't be happen. She will not let people just say what they want, particularly if she hears them.**_

_**Anyway, again, there was no mention of any mutant abilities in this chapter.  
**_

_**Playlist for this chapter:  
**_

_**1. Gone With the Sin - H.I.M  
2. Love You Like I Do - H.I.M.  
3. Moi...Lolita - Alizee  
4. Utopia - Within Temptation  
5. Ice Queen - Within Temptation  
6. Jillian (I Give You My Heart) - Within Temptation  
7. Jane Doe - Within Temptation  
8. Frozen - Within Temptation  
9. All I Need - Within Temptation  
10. Lost - Within Temptation  
11. Murder - Within Temptation  
12. Age of Decadance - Raven Quinn  
13. Gothic Lolita - Emilie Autumn  
14. Unbeautiful - Lesley Roy  
15. Misfit - Lesley Roy  
16. Raped by the Devil - Imperia  
17. Before I'm Dead - kidneytheives  
18. Animal I've Become - Three Days Grace  
19. The Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin  
20. Blow Me Away - Breaking Benjamin  
**_

_**And this is the playlist for this chapter. The first three songs she listened to during French class, while the last seventeen were listened to when she was making dinner, and answering e-mails.  
**_

_**W**__****__**hat Bella, Angela, and Jasper all say (Please note that it'll just be the translations to English):  
**_

_**'Yes, I am. And I'm just as good at speaking in several other languages as well.**_

_**Can you teach me some of these other languages?**_

_**Sure, just let me know what languages you'd like to learn**_

_**Hide my scent**_

_**Hello. I'm Bella, and I'm to be your partner in this class. It's nice to meet you.  
**_

_**I'm Jasper. It's nice to meet you as well.  
**_

_**What?  
**_

_**She probably didn't mean that you could listen to music during class  
**_

_**She also didn't expressly forbid it either  
**_

_**What are you listening to?  
**_

_**A band called H.I.M. It stands for His Infernal Magesty  
**_

_**What song are you listening to?  
**_

_**I was listening to a song called 'Gone With the Sin' but now I'm listening to one called 'Love You Like I Do'  
**_

_**What language does the bad sing in? And what language are the songs sung in?  
**_

_**English  
**_

_**I'm sure you should be listening to something in French, shouldn't you?  
**_

_**There, now I'm listening to the appropriate music to listen to in a French class  
**_

_**Hungry for You. Is that a vampire book?  
**_

_**Yes. But it's also very different than most vampire books, as this one doesn't have a supernatural reason for them  
**_

_**Oh. Then what's the reason for why they're vampires?  
**_

_**Failed science experiment'**_

_**Please Review, I really want to know what you think of this chapter.  
**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness  
**_


	5. A Beginning Conversation

_**Thank you to bellibella for the French translations in this chapter. **_

_**Finally, this chapter is done. Technically, this is kind of the first new, new chapter of this story, since this chapter wasn't posted up when I started the editing and rewriting process, though I did have it started. Um, the chapter is actually a bit different to how I originally was going to have it, but I like it a lot better this way over the way it was going. Please note that, for the French in this chapter, the translations in English will be in the bottom author's note.  
**_

* * *

**A Beginning Conversation**

* * *

The next day wasn't too bad, though there were times that I disliked it. I was able to sleep better the night before, without the aid of a potion, so I felt more refreshed when I woke. Plus, the day didn't appear to have any sign of becoming worse, so I was able to ride my bike to school. Unfortunately, this cause people to stare at me again when I arrived – parking next to the silver Volvo – as my leather riding jacket wasn't all that flattering, and I had the feeling that I would be answering questions about it later.

I was mostly left alone, the selected group from the previous day being the ones who hung around me the most. I mostly talked to Angela, who I found worth getting to know over the others. During French, Jasper made a comment on my bike, but didn't pry about it, which had me extremely grateful.

However, what made the next bad was that the two teachers I disliked kept me on my toes, making me exhausted from their petty games. Gym wasn't as good as the previous day, either, for Lauren – who I hadn't even realized was in it – kept trying to trip me. It only stopped after I 'accidentally' elbowed her when she tried it again just when I was about to hit the ball. She was forced to spend the rest of the class sitting on the bleachers, a tissue to her nose that I'd bloodied up.

And it was made all the worse because Edward Cullen wasn't there.

And I even prepared for it, too. I made sure to do my scent spell before I even left the house, waiting until Biology to find out if it worked. But, when lunch came, and I noticed that there were only four Cullens there, I was...unhappy. I thought that, maybe, he had decided to skip pretending to eat, but that thought was shot once it was time for Biology.

I did my best to appear relaxed and unaffected by his absence during lunch. Unlike the previous day, Mike, Eric, and Tyler – who turned out to have been the boy from the previous day that Mike had chased all over the cafeteria – stayed at the table. Mike commandeered the talk, making plans to go to the Indian reservation sometime within the next two weeks, of which I declined giving an answer for, since I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not. He was also insistent in walking me to my next class, a task he repeated every day for the rest of the week.

I arrived to Biology pretty quickly, as Ms. Beniot let us out earlier than she should have. When Mike saw me sitting alone at the table, he walked towards me, taking a seat at the table and trying to talk to me. I wasn't all that happy at the attention; he didn't seem to get he signs that I wasn't interested. In fact, once class ended, he decided to walk me to my next one, despite the fact that it was unneeded.

He was talking on the qualities of a golden retriever more and more in my presence, for he'd done the same thing after Gym as well. In fact, once we'd gotten to the door of my Mythology class, I could pretty much see him with wagging tail. In order to keep myself from laughing in his face, I hurried into class, choosing, instead, to think about why Edward wasn't here.

It might have seemed egotistic, but I was positive that it had to do with me. It just seemed too much of a coincidence for him to disappear like he has after what happened yesterday, what with his reaction and then his attempt to get changed to a different class that period.

When school ended, an I'd pulled out to leave, I realized that I was being watch, and, unlike the eyes of everyone else, these ones felt...different. I followed them over to the silver Volvo I'd seen yesterday. The four remaining Cullens were standing around it, staring in my direction, probably wanting to see what was so strange about me that their brother had to run away.

I wasn't all that surprised that they were the owners of the Volvo. While not as flashy and expensive and some other cars out there, I knew that it was one of the ones that wasn't cheap to get. It was kind of expected that they'd own it, being as they'd had a lot of time to build up money – years, in fact. Everything about them screamed money, even their clothes. You only needed a glance to know that what they wore was the expensive in season designer clothes, as if they needed to flaunt their wealth.

Not that I could really talk. While I would probably never wear anything like that – I had my likes, and refused to change them for anyone – none of what I owned could be called cheap. Still, it did seem overkill, and, if I hadn't known that they were vampires, I'd wonder why people didn't flock around them because of their wealth.

When I got home, the disappointment of Edward not being there didn't linger long, for Tristelianna called me.

"So, how was your first and second day of school?" she asked, completely forgoing any semblance of a greeting.

"Did you not get my e-mail last night?" I asked her, choosing to ignore her question. If she was so curious to know, she could very well read that over asking me.

"Yes, I just figured I would ask," she said. "Besides, that e-mail didn't hold anything about today, either, so..."

I rolled my eyes.

"School was school," I said, repeating the words I'd told Charlie when he had asked. "Not particularly fun, but necessary."

"Did anything new happen with the Cullen guy?" came Kitty's voice, which got louder as she spoke. I got the feeling that she'd stolen the phone from Tristelianna, something that was confirmed when I heard the sound of the two fighting over it. After laughing at the bickering for a while, I finally suggested, "Why don't you just put it on speaker phone?"

There was a pause on the other side.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Kitty said, grumbling a bit, which became louder as she turned it on. The noise of bad music, clacking utensils, and shouting became apparent.

"Because I was keeping it from your mind," Tristelianna grumbled. "I wanted to talk to her alone, nosy." She sighed. "Anyway, Kitty asked a good question. Did anything new happen with that Cullen guy you mentioned? The one who didn't seem to be able to handle the hint of your scent?"

"Nothing happened," I said. "He wasn't there."

"So he ran away," Tristelianna said.

"Seems so," I said. "After all, it's not like he can get sick."

"No, he can't can he," Kitty said.

"So, where are you two, anyway?" I asked.

"We're stopped at a diner several hours away from where my mother lives," Kitty said. "She was happy to see us, and says hello to everyone. We just left earlier today."

"How did she take to your road trip plans?" I asked.

"Oh, she wasn't surprised, but she did wonder why I was doing them now instead of waiting for summer. I think she suspects that we're doing this to look at colleges," Kitty said.

"Yeah, we kind of kept away from the real reason, and let her think that," Tristelianna said. "Besides, it's not like it's that bad of an idea. I mean, we are going to have schoolwork to do. The professor told us that we are to do two to eight page essays on certain sites that we'll be sure to pass by, which will count towards history and English, while our other work will be e-mailed to us."

"Sounds nice," I said.

"It is, to a point. The essays are to be due a week after we visit said site – and he'll known when we do that – while the e-mailed work is to be due every Friday – and we'll be receiving it every Monday," Kitty said.

"Is it a lot of work?" I asked.

"Yes," the two said.

"Of course, considering how much we've had to do in the past, it's not to surprising that we've got a lot," Kitty added.

"And, with the fact that we get five days to do it all, and that's a lot more time than we're used to for the amount of work, it makes it easier to get it down. What we'll probably have the biggest problem with is the essays. The way that's going to work is that, once we've hit the historical site, we let the the professor know, and he'll assign how long the essay needs to be," Tristelianna said. "He has assured us that they won't need to be longer than eight pages, but that we can make it longer than that if need be. We are also to have the word documentary be in a readable font, and have the font size be either ten or twelve. Oh, and the margins have to be at least half an inch inwards."

"Sounds fun," I said.

"Yeah," Kitty said. "So, have you heard from any of the others yet?"

"No, but I suspect that if something important comes up, I will," I said, going through the fridge to figure out what I was going to make that night. "What about you guys. Have you heard anything yet?"

"No," Kitty said. "Though, Tristelianna did call Hermione to see what was going on over there earlier this morning."

"And, what did she find out?" I asked.

"The trials would be starting the next day," Kitty said.

"Yeah, apparently, they've finally figured out a way to make sure that there's no way for those who are going to be on trial to get away with their crimes," Tristelianna said. "Hermione mentioned that she managed to find a fool proof way of making sure that people didn't walk free, unless they were truly innocent."

"I'm sure that not having Dumbledore, one of his ilk, or a sympathizer to anyone who is going to have a trial, will make that even better," Kitty said. "Hermione mentioned that the only reason why it took so long was picking out the jury for the trials, so to speak."

"Let me guess, most of them are hungry for revenge against the criminals," I said.

"I have the feeling it's either that or letting a sympathizer have a vote," Tristelianna said. "Unfortunately, there really isn't anyone available who wasn't touched by the war. At least having those who want revenge means that they won't be swayed by any lie the criminals attempt, so they manage to convince the Chief Warlock that they don't need to take Veritaserum."

"Wouldn't work anyway," Kitty said. "Harry mentioned that they've managed to make the prisoner stand into a lie detector. Should they not take Veritaserum, they will have a chance to prove that they won't lie, and depending on the result of whatever it is that will show the lie or not, it'll say whether or not they'll be forced to have the truth potion or not."

"Nice," I said. "And I take it that this...ward will let people also know if they somehow managed to get some way to prevent the truth potion from affecting them."

"Yes," Kitty said. The noise that had become background dropped until it was even quieter than before, and I could just vaguely hear Kitty asking for the check.

"Well, we're about to head out. I want to at least make it to state line before stopping for the night," Tristelianna said.

"Okay, then," I said. "Bye."

"Bye," she said, with Kitty calling bye to me as well. I hung up, feeling a bit better instantly now that I'd talk to someone I was familiar with, though it wasn't the one I really wanted to talk to. Looking at the clock, I smiled a bit, realizing that it would be a perfect time to call Elena. Dialing her cell, I waited for her to pick up.

"How has your day been?" Elena asked when she picked up.

"Okay," I said. "However about you?"

"Aunt Jenna wants to bone Jeremy's history teacher," was her answer. I snorted, shaking my head.

"You know, I so did not need to know that," I said.

"Nor did I, but, unfortunately, ended up being forced to know, so I'm letting you know as well," she said.

"Misery love company," I said dryly.

"Exactly," she answered, and I could hear the smile in her voice. I walked over to my bed, sitting down once I reached it.

"So," I said, my voice serious. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm in my room at the inn I'm staying at," she said. "And, before you ask, I will probably be a resident at the Salvatore Boarding House by tomorrow evening, if all goes well."

"I would have thought that you would already be one by now. I mean, it's been about five days already," I said.

"Four days as I had a late start Friday. And, well," Elena started, "apparently, Aunt Jenna wasn't exactly all for having me to stay there like I had originally thought she would. She wanted me at the house, but respected my decision on that matter, and tried to help me get an apartment, but...well, they're weren't many free ones, and those that were free, well, neither of us trust the other tenants, or the doors. I finally got her to agree to give the Boarding House a try...about five minutes ago, in fact, as I just hung up with her. However, it's a bit late, so I'll be going by there tomorrow."

"Why did Jenna take so long to decide?" I asked.

"Oh, apparently the boarding house has changed hands a few times since I...left," Elena said. "The owner I remembered being there died about two years after I left, and left the building to his grandson, who, apparently earlier this year, gave it to his oldest nephew before permanently moving to California. And, well, said nephew isn't much older than I am, plus his younger brother – who is our age – also lives there."

"Ah, it would be the opposite of what we had in New York, only with less people," I said, thinking about how Harry had ended up being the only boy in our group, and dorm house.

"Exactly. However, with the lack of places to live at in town, well, my only real choices are live at the house, get my own house, or continue to live at the motel I'm stationed at. And, well, I don't like any of those three, nor was Jenna for the latter two, so I finally manage to convince her to at least let me ask," Elena said.

"What if you can't get a room there? And what have you been doing about school?" I asked, though I doubted I really needed too. From the sounds of it, she hadn't had time to do anything school-wise.

"Oh, I won't be starting until I have a place to live," Elena said. "That's something that Jenna and I have agreed on, because Jenna doesn't want me to be distracted from my school work, nor does she want me to end up being stuck where I'm staying because I was more concerned for doing school work. And, thankfully, because of my grades, I can afford not to immediately have to deal with school.

"As for what I'll do if I can't get a room there, well, I'm not sure. As I mentioned before, there are not that many places around for me to live at. Of course, I did hear Jenna muttering that, maybe, she could convince someone to take me in as a boarder elsewhere. She has gotten to know some of Jeremy's friends, and she does know the sheriff as well. She thinks that Sheriff Forbes will be willing to let me stay there, and since Sheriff Forbes also has a daughter my age..."

"You might end up making a new friend," I finished. We talked for a few more minutes before she mentioned that she had to go – apparently, she had to get ready for dinner, which was going to be at her aunt's house. After saying bye, I hung up, going down the stairs to prepare dinner for myself and Charlie.

* * *

The rest of the week went by in much the same fashion as Tuesday had, though I refrained from riding my bike to school. Charlie had looked as if he wanted to chew me out for it, but the fact that I hadn't actually broken any promise that I'd made him stayed his tongue. Still, in order to keep him from worrying, I didn't ride the bike again, though that was mostly because it was raining on and off the next few days.

Edward was still conspicuously absent from school, though I always made sure my scent was hidden. While I had the feeling that he wasn't coming back for a while, I didn't want to end up blindsiding him when he did. Finally, the weekend arrived, heralding my survival of school, along with bringing light to the promise I'd gotten from Charlie about ridding of the yellow cabinets.

He told me where I would be able to find the the hardware store to get the paint at, then left, planning on fishing with his friends from the Indian Reservation, which he'd called La Push. I wished him luck, telling him that he should bring home some more fish – a joke, as we had plenty of it already – and headed to the hardware store, where I got the paint color I figured would look good with the rest of the house. It was a dark brown color, which would cover the yellow up nicely. I bought a paint brush – not wanting to deal with a roller – and went back. Then, after making sure no one was watching, I cheated, using magic to apply the paint. The cabinets looked a lot better afterward, and I was able to take off my glasses once it was done.

Then, I pulled out a crock pot, filling it with water, cubed slices of meat, carrots, onion, celery, and a few other things, and set it to cook a delicious stew for when Charlie got home. Then, I set about putting safeguards on the house, the same wards I had put around the windows and door of my room. I was going to make sure that this house the most protected house in Forks. Of course, I also had to be careful with these wards. I didn't want Charlie to end up getting hurt because someone he knew wasn't quite 'human'. So I didn't stop supernaturals getting into the house. Instead, I made it so that one of my crystals would glow slightly anytime someone who wasn't completely human entered the house.

The crystal I used was on a thin, long, silver chain that I planned on wearing at all times. I added a slight heating spell to it so that, in case I had to hide it, I'd still know if someone inhuman came into the house. I didn't want people to notice the crystal glowing. It wouldn't be a good thing if they did.

By the time Charlie got back, the stew was about ready to be dished out and eaten. I didn't make anything to go with it, figuring that it would be enough. As we sat to eat, Charlie was silent, but I got the feeling that he wanted to say something, and it didn't have to do with the new cabinet color. This was mostly because he kept glancing at me every few moment, and looking as if he was about to speak. I waited for him to do so, but he kept eating instead.

"What?" I asked him, after another glance. I was getting a bit tired of him waiting to ask, particularly since I had the feeling he'd be finished eating soon, and never end up asking. He was, after all, on his third bowl of stew already.

"Um, well, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind hosting a small gathering," Charlie said, a bit uncomfortable. I had the feeling that he was afraid of my answer. "Billy, Harry, and some of the others would like to come and meet you. I figured that it would probably be better here because you're more familiar with being here, and, if you wanted to disappear, you'd be able to do so more easily."

"Um, when would this be happening?" I asked. "I mean, I won't need a lot of time, and I'm actually not all that good with waiting for things to happen. If this happens, I would prefer it to happen sooner rather than later. And by that, I mean within the next day or two."

"You don't like having a lot of time to plan things out, do you?" he asked, looking a bit amused now that he knew I wasn't shooting it down immediately. I guess he must've wanted me to meet his friends.

"No, I don't," I said. "If I have too much time to plan, then not only will I change my mind at least a dozen times within the first few days, but I'll end up doing so after things have already begun to happen as well. And then, almost always, something will go wrong. I plan better on a short, _short_ term schedule."

"Okay, then," Charlie said, sitting back. "You'd be open to it, though?"

I nodded. "Yes," I said. "Just so long as it happens soon, but I still have time to plan. Oh, and you better let me know just how many people would be coming as well."

"Well, I'll call Billy tonight, and see if we can't have it Monday night," he said.

"Tell me tomorrow what's been decided," I said. "And how many people are coming."

"I will," he said, picking up his bowl and heading to the sink. He rinsed it out, then placed it down with the rest of the things that needed to be washed. Heading to the living room, he grabbed the cordless as he passed it. I heard him turn the television on, the sounds of some ball game coming to my ears, followed by the sound of him talking to someone. Frowning, I pulled my I-pod out of my sweater pocket, putting my ear buds on and finding a song that I wanted to listen too, not feeling up to continuing the play list I'd had going earlier that day. As Marilyn Mason's Coma White played, I finished eating, then set about putting cleaning and putting everything away.

As I cleaned, I wondered how I would take meeting his friends, and how them meeting me would go. I didn't know what, exactly, Charlie may have said about me, and I didn't know how they expected me to act. It was a bit nerve-wracking, not to have any clue on such a matter. I figured, however, that I would do myself no favors acting like someone other than myself.

Once I'd finished cleaning, I turned to head up the stairs. Charlie hung up the phone right then, turning towards me. Pausing the song I was on – Fires at Midnight by Blackmore's Night – I looked at him.

"Billy will get back to me with the number of people who will be willing to come over tomorrow," he said. I nodded.

"Okay, then," I said. "Goodnight."

I wasn't actually planning on going to sleep, but I figured, if I did fall asleep, then I wouldn't feel guilty for not saying it. Especially since, after my shower, I didn't plan on leaving my room.

It wasn't actually until one in the morning that I did fall asleep. I never heard Charlie coming up to bed; I got the feeling that he'd fallen asleep on the couch. Still, there was nothing to tell me that happened for sure, since he, as usual, was awake before I was. It was the phone that woke me up the next morning, ringing shrilly through the house. Groaning as I got out of bed, I was about to head to it, only to stop on the stairs when I heard Charlie answer it. That confused me a bit, seeing that I didn't expect him to still be here.

"Morning, Bells," he said, having looked up and seen me.

"Morning," I said, yawning as I continued walking down the stairs. I took a look at him, seeing that he was in casual clothes. It looked as though he was actually getting ready to leave before the phone rang.

"Who was it on the phone?" I asked.

"Billy," Charlie said. "He was wondering if I was still coming fishing with them today."

"Ah," I said, starting to head into the kitchen.

"Do you mind me going?" he asked. "I probably should have asked you if you -"

I stopped him right there. I didn't want him to feel like he had to stay home with me.

"No, it's alright," I said. "I was just wondering who was on the phone. It woke me up."

"Okay then," he said. "Sorry the phone woke you up."

"It's okay," I said, looking through the fridge to figure out what I'd like to eat. I closed it as another yawn overcame me. "I'll probably go back to sleep once you leave, anyway."

"Try not to sleep the whole day," he said.

"Can't promise I won't," I said, heading back up the stairs. "Have fun. And don't forget to give me a count of how many people are going to be here for that little meet and greet you wanted."

"I won't," he said, grabbing his fishing gear and leaving the house. As I told him, I went straight back to sleep for at least another two hours before getting up for the day. Knowing that we'd probably have company the next day, I made out a list of what I could make for dinner that would be enough to feed a medium to large group. I decided that, while there would be a theme of what could be eaten, I would also leave it to the guest to have a choice of what they wanted. Since sub sandwiches were pretty easy to make, I decided to make a list of meats and cheeses that could be used.

When Charlie came home, I had a simple idea of what would be needed for the little shindig he wanted, and he had the number of those willing to come, which ended up being a grand total of...seven people. I had to admit, when I heard the number, I was a bit shocked – I would have thought it would have been more. However, from what he told me, two of the seven were his closest friends, and the rest was family to them, though he also mentioned that the daughter of his one friend would not be joining.

Nodding my head, I wrote down a note on the paper in front of me of how many people I would be expected to feed, adding up to three more people – in addition to my father and myself – just in case a last minute addition happened.

"Okay, well, tomorrow after school, I'll go to the store and get some more food," I said.

He looked at the kitchen, which was pretty full, as if to ask 'don't we have enough already?'

"I know what I'm going to do tomorrow, and we don't have enough of what's needed," I added on.

"Ah, okay," he said, eating his food in silence. The rest of the evening passed pretty quickly, and, before I knew it, Monday had arrived. It was cold when I woke up, shivering when I pulled myself out of my little cocoon of blankets. Knowing this, I chose one of my long sleeved shirts – a red velvet blouse with Celt inspired swirls on it. I chose a pair of gloves that went to my wrists, along with my usual dark colored jeans, and a pair of black boots. A thick sweater that laced up on the sleeves and hood, and had a silver glitter rose design on the front and back was also thrown on for insurance so that I didn't get too cold. I paused for a moment with my wand in my hand, unsure if I should do the spell or not, then decided to be safe rather than sorry.

I got to school pretty quickly, people greeting me in the parking lot. I didn't know all their names, but I did acknowledge them with a wave. Though it was definitely colder today – I could feel it through my gloves, which were thin due to the need for movement rather than a need for warmth – I didn't hurry to get into a building, because it wasn't raining at the moment.

The day went pretty well at first. We had a pop quiz on _Wuthering Heights_ in English that was pretty straightforward, easy to do. The two classes that had the teachers who didn't like me was spent with me being ignored by them, which was relieving. And, in Gym, the team I was on won every game, with little help from me – truthfully, I stayed in back, not really feeling up to playing.

However, my good mood disappeared when Jessica and I left the Gym.

The air was filled with swirling bits of white, and the wind bit at my cheeks and nose. I could hear others shouting excitedly to each other.

"Wow," Mike said as he rejoined us. "It's snowing."

I looked at the little cotton fluffs that were building up along the sidewalk and swirling erratically past my face. A frown crossed it. This wasn't snow; it was mush.

"Ew," I said, feeling as if my good day was now gone. Mike looked at me, confused at my reaction.

"You don't like snow?" he asked, sounding as if he couldn't imagine someone not liking it.

"Oh, I don't mind snow. However, I do have a problem with mush, and this is mush," I said.

"Are you sure you've seen snow?" Mike asked. I looked at him, an eye-brow raised.

"I lived in both New York and Scotland, both of which get's snow, so yes, I have seen it," I said.

"Right, sorry, forgot," he said. Before he could say anything else, though, a big, drippy ball of mush hit him from behind. I was suspicious about Eric and Tyler, both of who were walking in the opposite direction – the wrong one unless they planned on not eating. I could see that I wasn't the only one who was suspicious of the two, as Mike bent down to gather mush for his own ball.

"Okay, have fun," I said. If they were going to start a mush ball fight, I was going inside. I powered walked to the cafeteria, keeping myself ready in case someone tried to lob one of those balls at me. Jessica, who'd followed, thought this was funny, but something in my expression seemed to tell her that it wouldn't be a good idea to test what I'd do if she decided to lob a mush ball at me.

Mike, who apparently decided to either postpone his revenge or had gotten enough of it, caught up with us as we were walking through the door, looking as if he'd been hit by even more mush balls before getting to us. I took a glace at the table the Cullens tended to commandeer, not expecting anything to have changed. So I was rather surprised when I saw that there were five people at the top, almost freezing when I noticed it. Luckily, I had enough sense to keep walking and acting normal, so that Mike and Jessica didn't wonder what was wrong.

I kept an eye on the table as we headed to the usual table we sat at, purposely taking a seat so that I could look at them without problem. I only took my eyes off of them for a second, long enough to pull out the food I'd brought with me, before looking back at them. Ignoring what was going on around – though I vaguely heard disbelief from Lauren about what I chose to eat – I continued to watch the Cullens.

Unlike how they usually were – still and unmoving – they definitely weren't today. It was obvious that they had enjoyed the unexpected mush – I couldn't call it snow, really couldn't – as much as everyone else seemed to. Because of my focus on them, nothing they did escaped my eyes, which was how I was able to see what happened next. Emmett held out something in his hand, which turned out to be a compacted chunk of ice, flicking it towards Alice. She flicked it away from her, and I followed the chunk of ice across the room, where it hit and broke against the wall, causing the wall to crack as well.

I looked back to the table, my eyes narrowing at the careless action they'd just done. Anyone could have seen that, which wouldn't have been good. They were lucky that I was the only who did. In all honesty, it seemed rather idiotic of them to do that, making me wonder if, perhaps, some words were said that made Emmett and Alice almost show off the fact that they weren't human. Not that you would suspect that, for, within moments, the scene changed. Emmett was now leaning towards the girls, shaking the mush from his hair onto them, causing them to lean away. There were obvious smiles and laughter on their faces.

A frown crossed my face. While the scene looked innocent enough, it looked as if it was staged as well, as if it was a scene for a movie. It make me wonder if, perhaps, they expected someone to look over towards them, to see if they were like regular teens. Or, maybe, I was just being paranoid. I didn't expect them to know that I knew what they were, as I hadn't given them any idea towards it, nor did I expect them to know that I was watching them, as I doubted that Emmett and Alice would have done what they did before if they did.

Shrugging my paranoia off, I looked at Edward, trying to see if there was any indication that he was doing better. The dark circles that had been underneath his eyes before were definitely lighter now, and, even from where I sat, I could see that there was a definite difference in his eyes. He'd fed before coming here. That was good, at the very least. It meant that he should have some more control over himself than he did before.

"Bella, what are you looking at?" Jessica asked me, interrupting my thoughts. She followed my gaze to the Cullen table, where I know sat in a staring war with Edward, who'd looked over when she asked for my attention. I felt him brush against my shield, and withheld a sigh. Instead, I slowly looked away, turning towards Jessica.

"Just daydreaming," I said, shrugging. I started on my food, eating it quickly without being rude about it.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you," she whispered, giggling a bit in my ear. I noticed that everyone else had quieted down, and were looking at us.

"Why is he looking at _you_?" Lauren sneered, jealousy evident on her face.

"Don't know," I said. "Maybe he's wondering if he should ask that question that seemed to have been bothering him last Monday."

She gritted her teeth for some reason, but didn't say anything else, and, not long afterward, the conversations started once more. I listened in this time, which turned out to be a good thing, for Mike was making plans to have a mush ball fight after school. Silently, I made contingency plans to either stay behind in Mythology, or get to my truck before the mush balls started flying.

Once I finished my food, I planned on heading straight to class. I didn't want Mike to walk me to French – he was a popular target for the mush balls, after all – but, when he saw me getting up, he immediately stood as well, and, though I tried to tell him that I didn't need him to walk me to my next class, he was insistent in doing so that I finally gave up on trying to convince him otherwise. Thankfully, as we went to leave, I saw that the rain was washing away the mush, which, while it disappointed Mike, made me really happy.

In fact, I was still smiling once I got to French, something that Jasper noticed.

"Salut," I greeted.

"Tu sembles vraiment contente qu'il ait fini de neigé," he said, and I wondered how he knew that the missing snow was the reason for my happiness. However, I didn't ask him about it.

"Je suis contente. J'avais peur de finir au milieu d'un tire-croisé de boules de neige puisque Mike ne semblait pas saisir mes tentatives pour lui faire comprendre que je ne souhaitais pas qu'il m'accompagne en classe,"I said instead.

The bell rang then, and Ms. Beniot call the class to order. She went over the day's lesson, ending with the fact that she wanted a five page essay on any topic, done in French, and due in two weeks. She then gave us free rein to talk for the rest of the class – all of ten minutes. I pulled out my shopping list, deciding to check it again since I had time to do so. Jasper saw what I was doing, and looked at it.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" he asked.

"C'est une liste d'articles que je dois me procurer au magasin. Mon père souhaite me faire rencontrer quelques uns de ses amis de La Push, et il a été décidé que la petite soirée aura lieu aujourd'hui, en grande partie dû à mon insistance,"I told him

"Pourquoi à ton insistance ?_"_ he asked.

"Oh, avoir beaucoup de temps pour planifier les choses ne me réussit pas. Je finis toujours par tout saboter, en grande partie parce que je ne peux pas m'empêcher de changer sans cesse d'avis," I answered.

He laughed at that, and then left me alone. I finished checking the list, seeing nothing that needed to be added, and put it up, thinking about what I'd write my essay on. I thought about some of the other essays I'd done in the past, wondering if I could – or even should – just translate one of them, but figured that I was taking a big enough risk at using them for their actual classes. While I'm sure that Ms. Beniot wouldn't care if I did that – I mean, after all, having given permission to write anything could also be taken as permission to just translate another essay into French, but I was sure she'd prefer seeing something new.

Of course, as an idea formed into my mind, I wasn't sure she'd appreciate what I was planning on writing about. Still, it was the only idea I was getting, and I did have information on it easily in reach. I'd be able to easily write a five page essay on it.

Angela and I walked to Biology together, as we normally did, and were among the first to arrive at Biology. I saw that there was a microscope and box of slides on each table, and wondered what we would be doing today, but my mind didn't focus on that for long. I was keenly aware of my surroundings, waiting for Edward to come in, so I definitely heard when he did so, noisily moving the chair next to mine to signal that. I resolutely kept from looking at him, to keep myself from seeing what his reaction was like. I wasn't going to be the one to make the first move, if he decided to make one at all.

"Hello," he said. I looked towards him, glad to notice that, unlike before, there seemed to be struggling in his expression. Though, as I studied him – and noticed that he seemed more open than before – I saw that his eyes showed carefulness, as if making sure he didn't give anything of himself away. I was tempted to tell him that he didn't have anything to worry about, that there was nothing he had to be careful not to say in my presence, but that would probably do more bad than good.

"Hi," I said.

"Sorry I wasn't here the rest of last week," he said. "I was...indisposed."

"It's okay," I said. "There weren't any labs, so it wasn't like I was forced to work on something that requires two people."

The bell rang then and Mr. Banner started the class. Of course, he only did long enough to tell us what we were to be doing, and then set us off to work.

"Ladies first, Bella?" he said, giving me a crooked smile that made my heart skip a beat and made me forget to breath. He waited a few minutes, his smile disappearing as an uncertain look crossed his face, and I quickly made myself move.

"All right," I said, reaching for the microscope. I snapped the first slide in place, and adjusted the microscope to a 40x objective. I studied the slide rather briefly, grabbing a pen and the worksheet that Mr. Banner had passed out beforehand, and went to write down what it was when Edward stopped me. I looked at him.

"Can I..." he started to asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"You don't trust me?" I asked.

"No!" he said, then paused, frowned, and added, "well, I just want to check."

"You don't trust me," I said. "It's 'prophase'. Check it if you want."

I quietly steamed as I freed my hand from his and wrote it down, while he checked the slide himself. I didn't like it when people doubted my abilities, particularly in school. Despite the fact that the Xavier school was mostly a school for mutants, in order to attain the level of privacy and ability to call itself a school for 'gifted youngsters', it's class program were very advance from the bat. This lab we were doing right now was one I'd done only four years ago – of course, this was during summer school, since I was at Hogwarts during the regular school year at the time. And I did it a few time, too, so that the knowledge of how to tell what the phases of mitosis looked like was ingrained in my head.

So it was insulting to know that someone doubted me.

"Prophase," Edward said. I glared at him, letting him know in no uncertain terms that I wasn't happy with him. He flinched, and gave me an apologetic face. I sighed, letting go of my anger. I doubted that he really meant to imply that I would be wrong. After all, I doubted this was the first time he'd been through high school, and I had the feeling that, like my classmates back at Hogwarts, most of his other 'partners' either weren't right or were content with just letting him do all the work. Though I hoped that he got a wrong answer every now and then – getting perfect scores would probably end up causing him trouble at some point.

"It's your turn," I said, handing him the next slide while giving him the worksheet. He switched the slides while I placed the one he'd been looking at back in the box.

"Anaphase," he said as he wrote it down. I nodded, grabbed the microscope, and began switching the slides once more. He looked at me, confused.

"Did you want to check?" he asked.

"No," I said. "I'm actually trusting that you got it right."

I pulled the worksheet towards me, checking the slide, and writing down what it was before pushing the microscope and worksheet towards him. I waited, seeing him check my answer, and expected him to need to check the microscope himself, only to be happily surprised when he didn't do that, just switched the slides himself, and check the new one.

We did this until we were done, setting the slides back into the box and putting the microscope and worksheet side by side on the table. We were the first to be finished; in fact, it didn't look like anyone else was close to it. I could see several people looking between two slides, and I saw that Mike had his book opened on his lap. I shook my head – Mr. Banner had specifically forbidden the use of books in this lab. I wonder what Mike would do if he ended up caught.

I felt a brush against my shield, and resisted the urge to sigh. Of course he'd try to get into my mind. I looked over at him, seeing the frustrated look that crossed his face as he expectations to get into my mind were dashed.

"Something wrong?" I asked. He shook his head. Mr. Banner came by then, seeing that we were done and looking at the worksheet rather intensely. He frowned, looked at the table, and then seemed to get an idea of what we did. Or, at least, he seemed to.

"So, Edward, did you give Isabella a chance with the microscope?" he asked.

"Bella," Edward said. "And,actually, she identified half of them herself."

Mr. Banner turned towards me, his expression skeptical.

"Have you done this lab before?" he asked.

"Four years ago," I answered. I saw his surprise at that, and I was reasonably sure I knew what caused it. This lab was considered advanced for junior Biology II, so telling him that this was considered an old lab was probably surprising.

"Were you in an advance placement back in Phoenix?" he asked.

"No," I said. "Considering that I didn't go to school in Phoenix, it's impossible to have been in an advance placement there. And I wasn't at the school I did go to, either." I didn't bother mentioning that it was because the school itself was advanced anyway. If he was willing to make a mistake about where I went to school – particularly considering that my school records clearly stated were I went to school exactly – I wasn't going correct it for him. He could look it up himself if he wanted to know.

He thought for a moment, then set the worksheet back down and said, "Well, I guess it's a good thing that you two are partners," before turning and walking off. I got out a notebook, not sure what I was going to do with it, but feeling the need to do something rather than just sit there.

"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" Edward asked, gaining my attention once more. I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering why he was being talkative.

"Not really," I said. "But then, that wasn't snow, that was mush."

He smirked.

"Now, you want to ask what's really on your mind?" I asked him, rather bluntly. His smirk disappeared as a flash of surprise when through him before he let his face settle into a politely confused face.

"Why do you say that" he asked. I snorted.

"So you really do want to talk about the weather?" I said, slightly incredulous. "Come on, you obviously want to start a conversation, or at least start an interrogation. So, here's your chance. Now, either ask me what question it is that you really want to know, or don't bother me."

He thought about it for a moment, then looked away, giving me the impression that he wasn't going to ask. I flipped open the notebook, looking for an empty page so I could get started on brainstorming for how I was going to write my essay for French, mentally sighing since I had been hoping to get a hint of what was on his mind about me. However, he ended up surprising me, turning back towards me with a determined expression on his face.

"Why did you come here to Forks?" he asked. I was a bit taken aback at how forceful the question was; I was also surprised that he had asked if, because I didn't think anyone else would ask.

"Because I could," I said in a offhanded way. I looked at him, seeing him blink at my answer, and gave him my own half smile.

"It's...complicated," I said, actually being truthful this time.

"I think I can keep up," he smirked.

"I...I wanted to get to know my father," I said.

"You wanted to spend time with him," he said, not quite repeating what I said, at least, not the right way.

"No," I said, looking him straight in the eye so that I knew he'd understand. "I wanted to _know_ him."

His eyebrows furrowed for a moment, then he looked at me, clearly wanting to ask what I meant by that but also not wanting to push too much. I bit my lip, and looked away for a moment, closing my eyes as I thought about it for a moment. Then, reaching a decision, I looked back at him.

* * *

_**All right, there you go. Nothing to really note, just that I did show Bella's attitude to Edward a bit at the end here. Also, I didn't actually plan on having the cliffhanger, but I figured it would be fun. Sorry for those people who don't like cliffhangers, but this is my story, so what I want goes. Anyway, next chapter will pretty much be the continuation of this chapter, so it will have the rest of the conversation between Bella and Edward, as well as the little soiree with Charlie's friends. Can anyone guess who it is that's going to be coming before I put up the next chapter? I'm curious to see if you can figure out who I'm thinking of with the vague hints I gave.  
**_

_**No mutant powers were mentioned.  
**_

_**Playlist for this chapter:  
**_

_**1. Heart of Glass - Blondie  
2. Tide is High - Blondie  
3. Beautiful Life - Ace of Base  
4. Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry - Ace of Base  
5. My Déjá Vu - Ace of Base  
6. Mirror Mirror - M2M  
7. Farmer's Daughter - Crystal Bowersox  
8. Arlene - Crystal Bowersox  
9. Blue Suitcase - Erin McCauley  
10. Love, Save the Empty - Erin McCauley  
11. Electric Twist - A Fine Frenzy  
12. Almost Lover - A Fine Frenzy  
13. What Were You Expecting? - Halestorm  
14. It's Not You - Halestorm  
15. Familiar Taste of Poison - Halestorm  
16. Coma White - Marilyn Mason  
17. Fires at Midnight - Blackmore's Night  
18. Make Me Wanna Die - The Pretty Reckless  
19. Nothing Left - Delain  
20. The Last Crusade - Epica  
21. Never Enough - Epica  
22. Out - Lunatica  
23. While Your Lips Are Still Red - Nightwish  
24. Wire Tap Out - Flee the Seen  
**_

_**Only a few of the songs were actually mentioned in the fic, but these are all the songs she listens to.  
**_

_**What Bella and Jasper say to each other:**_

_**'Hello.**_

_**You look so happy that the snows gone.**_

_**I am happy. I was afraid that I'd end up caught in a crossfire since Mike didn't seem to get my attempts at the fact that I didn't want him walking me to class.**_

_**What's that?**_

_**It's a list of items I need to get from the store. My dad wants me to meet a few of his friends from La Push, and it was decided that the little soiree would be today, mostly at my insistence.**_

_**Why at your insistence?**_

_**Oh, I don't do good with having a lot of time to plan things. I always end up messing up if I do, mostly because I can't help but change my mind.'**_

_**Please Review, I really want to know what you thought of this chapter.  
**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness  
**_


	6. A Finishing Conversation and Another

_**Wow, this chapter was kind of hard to get out until I hit a certain point. Then, I was able to get it all out. Of course, once I got there, it just didn't really want the part I was working on to end so I could get to where I wanted the chapter to actually end, but I was finally able to do so. Of course, this chapter is now a lot longer than I previously wanted it to be, but, well, It just means that I should up on long I want each chapter than trying to keep it within a certain word count frame. I kind of just want each chapter to be close to each other in words, which is why I put a limit of how long they are, but I don't think I'll actually be able to keep it up like that much longer, if this chapter is any indication.**_

_**Anyway, this continues straight off from the previous chapter, meaning that it's the same day. Oh, and there's a surprise twist at the end that I hope people like.  
**_

* * *

**A Finishing Conversation and Another Meeting**

* * *

"My mother, Renée, took me away from here before I was even a year old," I said. "I never saw my dad afterward, up until now."

"Why?" he asked. "I mean, based on how he was when the news came, it's not like he didn't want to see you. I don't think there is a single person around who didn't hear news of your homecoming. He was ecstatic to know you were willing to come live with him for a while."

"My mother is the reason," I said, sighing. "She...well, she's a bitch, to put it bluntly. She apparently told Charlie that she'd let him know where we'd settle down when she left, only she never did. And, as I grew up and started asking about him, she told me, well, horrible things about him, so, eventually, I started not wanting to try and see him, much less talk to him."

"And yet your here..." he said. I gave a humorless chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said. "While it was only recently that I actually started thinking about it, I've known for a lot longer that what she said about him was wrong, subconsciously, at least. It's kind of hard not to when you think..." I stopped, not having meant to go that far. My trailing off was caught by him.

"Think about what?" he asked. I sighed. While I didn't owe him any answer, having started to talk about it kind of compelled me to continue.

"When you think about what she did to me," I said. Confusion showed on his face once more, with hints of worry, which led me to be able to have a hint of what he was probably thinking. I was proven right when he asked his next question.

"Bella, did she...abuse you?" he asked. I shook my head.

"I said she was a bitch, not an abuser," I told him. "While, to some people, there isn't a difference between the words, to me, there is. I think the best word to say is that she...was neglectful after a while. She apparently decided, not long after I turned six, that she no longer wanted to take care of a child." I was actually fibbing there a bit, since my mother had loved children at the time – a bit too much, if one took the way she tried to keep me from ever seeing Charlie. Still, the real reason for it was something that I wasn't going to be telling him at the moment.

"So she ignored you." He said it as an assumption, not a question. I guess, if you looked at it, he was partially right, though he wasn't fully.

"No," I said. "At least, not the way you're probably thinking. While she just stopped taking care of me at first, she came up with a better solution later. She ended up packed a bag of my clothes, gave me a bit of money, drove me through several cities in the state we were living it until she found a good place, handed me the bag, booted me from the car, and told me not to bother coming to look for her before leaving. She basically abandoned me."

He looked horrified at the knowledge. I shrugged, having gotten over it years ago.

"I wasn't alone long," I said. "I met my best friend – my, sister in all but blood, actually – not long afterward. And then we met Logan, who took care of us until we ended up at the Xavier school, where I met the rest of my friends, so, really, it wasn't that bad."

He looked as if he wanted to disagree with me, but didn't say anything.

"I would have thought that you would have come here sooner, then," he said.

"Yeah, well, like I said, I knew that she'd lied subconsciously. However, it took me a while to consciously think about. I was kind of too busy to do so before a few months ago," I said. "And, even with what she did to me, it was easy to believe her because he never seemed to try and look for us. I know why now, of course, but, at the time, I didn't."

"I see..." he said. I was curious as to what it was that he was seeing, if he understood what it was that made me the way I am.

"Do you?" I asked, needing to know.

"Probably not all that well," he admitted. "Your rather difficult to read, and I can't tell if what your mother did bothers you all that much or not."

"Most people say I'm rather easy to read," I lied. While I could be like an open book at some points, I was rather good and deceiving people, which served me well in the last few years.

"I find you rather difficult to read," he said. I realized then that he was mostly talking about how he couldn't get into my mind more than anything. I shrugged, choosing to answer the unasked question he mentioned

"As for if I'm bothered by it, not really," I said. "Her neglectfulness kind of kept it from hurting a whole lot when she did abandon me, and the rest of the hurt faded years ago. Now, I'm just glad that I didn't stay with her." I bit my lip, carefully censoring my words. "From what I remember of her, she was rather childlike herself, just barely able to take care of us. Had I stayed, I'd most likely had ended up the mother at some point, and be all motherly because of it. In fact, I'd probably be at a point where I wouldn't care to have my own child because of it."

"It was rather...unfair of her to do that to you, though," Edward said. "not just the abandoning you, but lying to you about your father and taking you away when she obviously couldn't take care of you two."

"Haven't you heard. Life isn't fair," I answered back, figuring that, if anyone, he'd definitely know this little fact. I saw it on his face his agreement over the statement, as he chuckled humorlessly.

"I believe I have heard that before," he said dryly.

"So that's it," I said. I became a bit...disturbed by the look that he leveled at me. I waited to see if he would say anything – maybe make an assumption that I wasn't as over it as I said I was – but he didn't. Maybe he saw something in my face or maybe my tone was enough, he I think he could tell that I truly meant what I said, that I wasn't hurt over her actions. And I wasn't.

Did I care for her? No. Would I go back to her if she wanted me back? Not a chance. Did I hate her? Yes. Still, I was content with never seeing her again – or thinking about her, but I haven't really been able not to since dragging her from my past when talking with my father.

"Who's your 'sister'?" he asked, letting the topic go. I grinned at him.

"Elena," I said. "Elena Petrova. It was her town that Renée left me in. She had some trouble with her adopted parents, and ran away. I was more than happy to stay with her and have her company. When we were given the option to legally change our names, we decided to take the same one."

"How did you decide on 'Petrova'?" he asked.

"Before that, we did a family tree deal, and discovered that there was a problem in her tree," I said. "Turned out that one her ancestor's mother had been barren, but they still somehow had a kid. It struck her as odd, so she did some deeper digging, discovered that the ancestor's journal was put on displace somewhere, and read it. We learned that the ancestor was found on the parent's doorstep, and that the mother figured out who it was that had the child after seeing a supposedly dead girl leaving the town not long after finding the child."

"And she figured this, how?" he asked.

"The girl, Katerina Petrova, apparently drowned around nine months previously," I told him. "Between the mother seeing that, and seeing a painting of Katerina, it's kind of easy to see that they have some relation between them."

"How so?" he asked, sounding fascinated. I couldn't blame him – Elena's family history really was fascinating to learn, more so than mine ever was. I wondered what he would think if he knew what her ancestor had become. After all, while of a different species, they were both vampires. Of course, until, or, rather, unless, he found out that I knew what he was, I couldn't exactly mention that.

"They look a lot alike," I answered. "Almost like identical twins. In fact, the only difference between them, particularly once she hit the age that Katerina was in the picture, is that Elena's hair is almost pin straight and she also has a streak of white through her hair like I do. Plus, we also found the Petrova family diaries, and the father's even mentions that Katerina had gotten pregnant and that, once the baby was born, he brought it to the barren woman's doorstep. It took a lot of digging to find this all out, though."

"Sounds like it," he said. I almost expected him to ask what caused us to do all this digger, but Mr. Banner called the class to order then, and our conversation ended. I expected to be...uncomfortable having told Edward a bit about my life before being at Xavier's, but I wasn't. I wasn't completely okay with it – Edward was still a stranger to me, after all – but him knowing didn't bother me at all. As Mr. Banner showed, with transparencies on the overhead projector, what I'd seen easily through the microscope, I pondered over my strange acceptance of him knowing.

When the bell rang, I gathered my things, expecting Mike – who had also taken up walking me to my next class after this one just as he did for French – to come running over to me like the little golden retriever he'd begun taking on qualities of. I could even picture a wagging tail as he did so. However, I was surprised – but not displeased – when Edward offered to walked me there. Pretty much forgetting about the fact that Mike was indeed walking towards me, I gave Edward my permission to do so, leaving with him before Mike could get to my seat.

There was no talking as we walked, which was okay with me. I wasn't clamoring to talk to him some more, since I really couldn't think of anything else to say. Not having to try and think of answers for any question he asked – particularly if I had to hide the truth – like I did with Mike was a welcome change, and I found myself hoping that this would become a regular occurrence. However, before we got to class, a thought occurred to me.

"Hey," I said. "Can I ask you to do something for me? It's nothing to hard – at least, it shouldn't be too hard – to do."

"It depends," he said, his face guarded. I had a feeling that he didn't want to commit to doing something until he knew what I wanted – understandable, considering what he was.

"Could you, could you not tell anyone what I told you. I mean, about my mother. I don't want Charlie knowing," I told him.

"He doesn't know," he said.

"Not everything," I answered. "He thinks that Renée dropped me off at the Xavier school and just never bothered to come back for me. He doesn't actually know the truth of how she abandoned me. I don't think he could actually handle knowing that, since I get the feeling he hasn't completely gotten over her."

"I won't tell," Edward said, his face pensive as he thought of...something. I wasn't sure what – he was hiding it very well. However, I did wonder if, perhaps, he thought the fact that I'd lied to my father wasn't a good thing. Having arrived at my class right then, I wasn't giving a chance to ask what he was thinking.

I ignored Jessica's attempts to get me to explain why Edward had walked me to class, simply saying that he was being nice, and was kind of glad that class didn't seem to drag on because of it, as she wasn't excepting that answer. I managed, when the bell rang, to lose her in the crowd, and headed straight to my truck. Unfortunately, Mike's class was between mine and my truck, and, upon seeing me, he hurried over to me.

"Why didn't you wait for me back in biology?" he asked, his tone demanding an answer. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I was unaware that I wasn't allowed to do what I wanted," I said coolly, my eyes narrowing. He flinched, realizing what an ass he sounded like. "Edward asked if he could walk me to class, and I let him. Simple as that. And, next time, don't demand anything of me, nor act as if I have to let you want me to classes, got it?"

He nodded quickly, hearing something in my voice that warned him that he was treading on dangerous ground at the moment. He frowned, thinking for a moment as if to get into a conversation that didn't end with me mad at him.

"So, wasn't that lab awful," he finally said, turning to the subject of our bio II class. "They all looked exactly the same. You're so lucky you had Cullen as a partner."

"Considering that I could have done the whole thing by myself without a problem, I really didn't need Edward's help," I answered back, rather stiffly due to his assumption that I couldn't do the lab. "In fact, I found it to be rather easy."

He paled, realizing that he insulted me, but before he could say anything, I walked away, heading to my truck. I didn't feel like listening to him repeatedly bumbling in attempts to woo me when I wasn't interested in him, and had no desire to waste anymore time. I did have things to do, after all. Plus, with it raining and being rather chilly, I was anxious to get into the cab of my truck.

Getting into my truck, I turned the engine, pushing my hood back as the heater came on. I pulled my I-pod from my pocket, hooking it up to the radio to play, quickly selecting something to play. Then, I went to leave. However, before I did so, I felt someone's eyes on me, in an intense way that caught my attention. I looked up, out of the window to discover that, while leaning against his car, Edward was looking at me.

I looked away quickly, backing out rather quickly before driving off, eager to be away from that intense stare. After my quick stop at the store for what I needed – which, after thinking about it, included some drinks so that there was more than just water to be served – I got home, doing my homework before making sure that the house at least looked clean. I cleared off the long table against the wall in the living room, planning on using it to place the food on. I was beginning to become nervous, so much that I accidentally spilled some water onto my shirt. Frowning, I headed up the stairs, mentally telling myself that I really ought to calm down so I don't do something like this again.

Going through my closet, I grabbed the first long sleeved shirt my hand touch, which turned out to be a tunic that was white with images of black trees along the top that faded to being completely black towards the bottoms, save for the hem, which was a light gray with the black tree images as well. Heading back down, I started setting up the plates for the meats and cheese slices, placing them, covered, in the fridge so that they stayed cold. Once that was done, I had nothing else to do but wait until the guest and Charlie got here, so I headed back up to my room, picking up the clothes I'd left on the floor and putting them into my laundry basket before starting a game.

The doorbell rang two hours later, just as I had saved and was turning the game system off so that it had a chance to cool down. Standing up, I headed downstairs, noticing that it had gotten dark without my notice, and headed towards the door.

"Who is it?" I asked, calling through the door. It was probably one of Charlie's friends, but I wasn't about to take a chance that it wasn't.

"It's Billy, Billy Black," called a male voice. Turning on the outside light – for it was rather dark at the moment, I peered through the side curtain, revealing a wheelchair bound man, with a face that I recognized from a picture that Charlie had. His face seemed to overflow, with cheeks resting against his shoulders, creases running through the russet skin like an old leather jacket. His eyes were black, and seemed young and old at the same time, while his hair was long enough to be pulled back into a pony tail.

Next to him was a young man...no, boy, actually. He had some similar features to the man in the wheelchair, leading me to believe that they were related. The boy couldn't have been more than fourteen, maybe fifteen at most. His hair was long, tied in a ponytail with a rubber band to keep it out of his face. There was a childish look to his face, made all the more pronounced by the look on it, as if he was a child forced to do something he didn't want. Behind them, coming up the drive, were two more boys, though I couldn't see their features quite well in the light.

"Whose with you?" I asked. I hadn't bothered to figure out all the names of everyone coming, but I figured I'd make sure that everyone with him was indeed with him. I heard the boy next to him mutter something, and saw Billy's sharp glance towards him.

"This is my son, Jacob, and his friends, Embry Call and Quil Atera," Billy said. Satisfied, I unlocked and opened the door.

"Come in," I said, doing my best not to laugh when Jacob saw him. He looked a bit thunderstruck when he saw me, and his friends weren't any better. Now that I could see them better, I could tell that the one Billy had introduced as Embry was the tallest of the three boys, not by much, but just enough. He was the slenderest of the boys as well, with chin length black hair that was evenly parted down the middle, one side tucked behind an ear while the other was left to hang freely. The other boy, Quil, was burly, sporting a haircut that was almost like a buzz cut.

Billy wheeled his chair in, chuckling over the face his son was making, and holding out a hand towards me.

"It's nice to meet you, Bella," he said.

"Nice to meet you as well," I said. Then, I turned back towards the boys, who were still just standing there.

"Are you going to come in anytime soon?" I asked, as headlights turned onto the street and another car came pulling up to the house. Two males and one female stepped out as Jacob and his friends finally shook themselves out of their stupor and stepped into the house. I heard the older male who'd just arrived yell out "Hey, Billy," to which Billy answered back with a "Hey Harry, Sue," showcasing that they were the the next arrivals for this little soiree. The one boy who arrived with them bounded up to the house, entering it right behind Quil.

The boy looked a bit younger than Jacob, yet was tall and gangly. It was his face that seemed to give away his age, being more youthful than anything. His brown eyes were sparkling with excitement as he stopped right in front of me.

"Hi," he said to me. "I'm Seth Clearwater. You're Charlie's daughter Bella, right?"

"I'm the only girl in the house right now, so I do believe your right," I said, causing him to laugh. "Nice to meet you, Seth."

"Likewise," he said, moving into the house and Harry and Sue came up. Like everyone so far, they had russet colored skin. Harry had grey streaked black chin-length hair with dark brown eyes. His face was full like Billy's was, but looked a bit more wrinkled than Billy's was. Sue had a thin face, with black eyes and black hair that fell past her shoulders. There were laugh lines around her eyes, but, other than that, her face was wrinkle free.

Once everyone was in the house, I went to close the door, only to have two more cars pull up. The one I recognized as Charlie's cruiser; the other, I didn't recognize at all, but figured they were a part of the party based on how Charlie greeted them.

Seeing that Charlie was now here, I figured I could abandon my post as door hostess at this point. Heading into the kitchen, I started pulling out everything that I'd set up earlier out form the fridge. I was distracted, however, when the crystal I'd enchanted heated up, alerting me to the fact that someone not quite human had walked through the door, freezing, and resisting the urge to grab my wand, I was startled when Charlie entered the room, calling my name.

"Bella," he said, causing me to jump. "Oh, sorry."

"It's okay, I said, turning around. Behind him stood two more people, a male and a female. I could see the male clearly, for he was facing me, while the female was turned, looking back behind her. She was also carrying something in her hands, a dish of some sorts. I looked at the male, seeing that he was a tall male, quite muscular, and had an air of seriousness about him. He wasn't quite as old as Billy or Harry were, but he was definitely older than Jacob, Seth, and the other two boys.

The woman, from what I could see, was rather pretty, with a sheen of shiny black hair falling halfway down her back. The side of her face I could see showed that she was definitely a beauty, an exotic one at that. Then, she turned to fully face me, and I had to bite back a gasp. The entire right side of her face was scared from hairline to cheek by three thick, red lines, one line pulling down the corner of her almond shaped eye, another twisting the right side of her mouth into a permanent grimace.

The seriousness of it wasn't what surprised me. I'd seen worse scars than that – Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, our fourth year Hogwarts DADA teacher immediately sprung into my mind. No, what surprised me was that I recognized the type of lines those were. They weren't exactly like the scars of Bill Weasley or Morgan, but they were pretty close to the ones of Professor Lupin, the only person I actually knew who had been attacked by a fully transformed creature. Her's had actually been done by an animal, and, with the shape looking were too close to the ones Professor Lupin had, they had to have been done by a wolf.

I realized I was staring, making her uncomfortable, as she looked down. I saw the guy next to her glare at me a bit for doing so, and quickly looked to what was in her hand.

"You brought something?" I asked, regaining my barings.

"Oh, yes," she said, holding out the dish to me. I took it from her, seeing that it was simply a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

"Thank you," I said. "And sorry about the staring."

"It's okay," she said, though I could tell that she wasn't comfortable about it.

"Oh, I'm Emily, and this is my fiancé Sam," she said, motioning to the man next to her.

"Hi," I said.

"Hello," he answered back. The two turned around, heading back out to the rest of them, clearly not all that comfortable being around me. I felt a bit bad about my staring, and Charlie looked confused at me.

"I guess I should have warned you not to stare," he said. I frowned, not liking that he was blaming himself.

"I should have known better myself," I told him. "I know several people who are self-conscious of their scars. I shouldn't have to be told or warned about it. It was rather rude of me to do so with her." I shook my head. "Anyway, help me bring this out? I cleared off the table behind the couch so that people didn't have to come into the kitchen to make their food. It would get pretty crowded in here otherwise."

"Okay," he said, grabbing a platter. I directed him where to put it, and heard the sounds of people 'mmming' at the sight of the food.

"I take it that we just have to make our own sub?" Jacob said, salivating at the moment. I had the feeling that he was imagining just what kind of combinations he could make.

"Yes, but do be conscious of everyone else. At least try and not hog one of something," I told him.

"Can't promise anything," Jacob said. I rolled my eyes, moving out of the way so that everyone could get something. As I did so, I noticed that Billy and Charlie seemed to exchange a look that made me immediately suspicious. I really hoped that Charlie wasn't attempting to set me up with his friend's kid – I'd have to make something up about why I wouldn't date him if Charlie did. After all, it wasn't like I could actually say that dating him would have to endure a touch free zone unless I wanted him to end up unconscious and unlikely to ever wake again.

Once I was sure that everyone had at least gotten one sub, I fixed my own, taking a seat near Emily. I wasn't comfortable in a setting like this. Everyone wanted to know something about me, whether I had liked the schools I'd gone to, to who my friends were while there. It didn't help that Jacob and his two friends were looking at me in a way that showed obvious interest in me, more interest than I was comfortable with. I was glad when Charlie – who seemed to tell that I was getting uncomfortable – finally shifted the conversation away from me, giving me a chance to finish eating and leave.

I knew that Charlie wouldn't begrudge me for doing so – he'd even mentioned that having this meet and greet here at home meant that I could escape at any time I wanted. And I had stayed long enough so that it wouldn't appear rude for me to leave at the moment.

Heading up the stairs was easy. No one seemed to have notice me not returning to my seat after I got up to put my plate in the sink, stealing the cookies while in the kitchen. I hoped no one would mind me not sharing them – they looked too good to do that, though I would be nice and save Charlie at least two...or one, if I remembered to. As I was heading up the stairs, I heard someone – not sure who – cheering at something on the screen. I shook my head at what seemed to be such typical male behavior, as every male I knew seemed to do that when watching sports and their team won. Even Harry was prone to do that from time to time, only his preferred sport was Quidditch – the only sport in the wizarding world.

As I was about to close my door – thinking of what I'd be doing up here, as I wasn't sure of what to do – I realized that Jacob, his friend, and Seth had all followed me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked them. Jacob shook his head.

"No, we were just wondering what you're doing," he said.

"I hadn't decided yet," I said. "I might throw on a movie, I might call one of my friend, or I might even check my e-mail, since I haven't done that yet..." The last bit was said quietly, as that thought only occurred to me just now, especially since I hadn't done so the previous day either – in fact, I hadn't logged onto my computer since the day after my first day of school. I really hoped that no one really needed me the last few days.

"Well, can we join you?" Jacob asked. I paused, thinking about it for a moment. Having them in the room would seriously cause me some problem, especially if I wanted – or even needed – to call one of my friends, for I would have to be careful not to let them hear things that they shouldn't hear. And if I tried to check my e-mail, they might try to peak over my shoulder to see what I was doing, and read something they shouldn't.

However, it would be extremely rude of me to say no when I made it clear that I wasn't doing something that would require privacy.

"Is something wrong with staying downstairs?" I asked, to buy me some thinking time.

"We just don't want to hang out with the older folk," Embry said. I snorted at his blunt comment.

"Well, all right. Come in," I said, having a thought as I did so. I might just be able to at least do my e-mail without trouble if this plan coming into my mind went well. Based on the sounds of awe coming from my room as the boys caught site of my entertainment area, I got the feeling that it wouldn't be too hard for it to go well. Seth coming to me and asking if they could play my Wii pretty much sealed that option.

"Okay, but I don't have many multiplayer games," I warned them. "I also only have two remotes."

"That's okay, we'll take turns," Embry said.

"What multiplayer games do you have?" Jacob asked.

"Um, I can't think of them off the top of my head," I said. "The games are there, though." I pointed to one of the shelves next to television. "They're on the middle shelf, to the right."

"That's not a lot of games," Quil said as he studied them. "Most of these are one player."

"I tend to only like certain things," I answered. "And I'm usually the one playing them, so it's not like I have need of having a lot of multiplayer games."

They nodded, satisfied with my answer, before grabbing one of the games, and setting it up. The wound of Mario Kart Wii filled my room as I grabbed my laptop, and set myself up on my bed, letting Seth – who was one of the ones playing right now – have the chair at my desk. Embry – who was playing against Seth at the moment – stood while Jacob and Quill all sat down, focused on the game. Glad to know that they wouldn't wonder what I was doing, and attempting to look over my shoulder. I sat near the wall so that I'd have something to lean against, logged on, and immediately went to my e-mail.

Luckily, there weren't too many things on there. I had a few messages that simply said 'hi' and were mostly their comments on how my first day went from Aura, Hermione, and Clarissa. Kitty, Tristelianna, and Azure all wanted to know what Edward looked like, something that had me rolling my eyes. I doubted Edward would be comfortable with me taking his picture to send to my friends. As for Morgan, well, she was curious to know which type of vampire Edward was, and also sent and update of her own status, letting me know that she had successfully settled into an apartment, once that was above a quaint little shop called Practical Magick. She also sent several pictures of her new place. I had to admit, the shades of red were rather beautifully done.

Finally, I clicked on Elena's message, which had been sent two days after our conversation.

_Bella _

_Sorry I haven't message or called you yet. I've just been a bit  
busy. If your wondering, I have indeed been allowed to settle  
into the boarding house. Of course, there was a little problem at  
first. But, I'll tell you about that later, because there is a bit of  
information that is more important to say. What information is  
it, you're probably wondering. This: the owner of the boarding  
house and his brother are vampires._

_Yes, just like you, I to have run into vampires here in Mystic  
Falls. Of course, unlike you, I was kind of expecting it, considering  
what a hotspot for vamps Mystic Falls is. But what really gets me,  
and makes me feel so dumb for no having thought about it, is  
the fact that they're vampires we've heard about. Remember  
when Professor Lupin mentioned those brothers known as the  
Salvatore brothers? Turns out that they're the brothers who own  
this boarding house, and that they're actually from this town. I don't  
know why I didn't think or even wonder if they might be related.  
I mean, there's nothing that points to it, but still..._

_And how do I know that they're those brothers? The rings they  
wear, for one It's a dead giveaway to any witch like us (and the  
servant witches, who, apparently, have a sort of base in this town).  
I can actually see the protection rune glowing on it. The other  
thing that gives them away is their names. I mean, how many  
Salvatore brothers out there are named Damon and Stefan?  
I don't think there are that many._

_But the biggest thing that gives it away is the way that they  
acted around me. Remember, it was Katerina who turned the  
two of them – I still think that was a bitch move from her, though  
not as much as I used to, now that I've seen what they look like.  
Well, considering that I'm her doppelganger in almost every way,  
you can guess a bit on how they reacted when they saw me. I  
kind of pretended not to notice it, but both of them looked a bit  
stunned to see me, and I know for a fact that Stefan called  
me Katherine, the name Katerina took upon coming here to  
America._

_I have to admit, it's kind of interesting to meet people turned by  
my own ancestor, in a strange sort of way. I'm sure that, if I  
said that to anyone, they'd look at me weirdly, but you have to  
admit..._

_Anyway, the main problem that we had was, for the most part,  
Stefan. He was so against me moving in here, I'm not completely  
sure why, either. I mean, the way he was acting actually almost  
ruined my chances of getting a room here, for Aunt Jenna had  
been very uncomfortable with me being around someone who,  
in her own words, was obviously crazy. Luckily, Stefan's girl-  
friend, Caroline – the sheriff's daughter – came by then, and  
he left, so, after some sweet talking to Damon, I was able to  
get a room here._

_And it's so lovely. It has it's own sitting room, a bedroom, a large  
bathroom, and a little room off to the side that I can turn into an  
office or mini library. In truth, it's more like a suite that a room.  
I got the feeling that this room was probably the master's room  
before the house was turned into a boarding house. I mean,  
there's really no way for it not to be. At least, that's what I think._

_Of course, the best thing about this room isn't the fact that it's  
just so big, but what's next to it. I'm pretty sure you can guess,  
but, as this is e-mail and not the phone, I won't know what your  
guess is, so I'll just say it. Damon's room is right across from it,  
to the point that, if the doors are left open, I can see into it. I'm  
really hoping that, at some point, he'll leave it open so that I can  
watch him undress, and, if this wasn't you, I'd feel really embarrassed  
to admit that._

_Anyway, now that I'm done being a completely pervert – and the fact  
that I'm doing that should tell you exactly why I'm not half as mad at  
Katerina anymore – I suppose that I should tell you some other, less  
exciting news._

_I may end up killing Jeremy. Why? Because the little idiot decided  
that, as I was born a Gilbert, I should take part in the Miss Mystic  
Falls competition, despite the fact that I told him I didn't want  
to be in it when he asked. I think he's getting back at me for the fact  
that I was kind of rude to his girlfriend. It wasn't on purpose, I just really  
didn't like her. And I do have a good reason for not liking her – she's  
playing him, and part of the reason why he's doing drugs._

_I can't get out to the competition. Even though I mentioned that I am  
no longer going by the Gilbert name, the arguments that Jeremy used  
are kind of hard to dispute, so I'm stuck in it. I have about three months  
– the main part of the competition is during spring break – to find an  
escort, find the appropriate dresses, and learn what I'll need to do  
in order to make it through this. Hopefully, I won't win. I really don't  
think that it would be fair to those who want to win if I did, since I  
don't want to be in this._

_But, when I get the date of when this thing is, do you think you might be  
able to make it over here? It would be a relief if you could. I'd love to  
see you, and I know that you'd enjoy seeing Aunt Jenna and meeting  
Caroline and Damon. You could even bring your dad – I'd love to meet  
Uncle Charlie._

_Oh, I started school today, which is also why I'm sending this. It was  
okay, like any day at school is. I met a few people though. I already  
knew Caroline and Stefan, and they invited me to sit with them, so  
I met their friends Matt Donovan – my brother's girlfriend's brother –  
Tyler Lockwood, and Bonnie Bennett._

_I have to admit, I'm not sure I really care for Bonnie all that much.  
She just rubs me the wrong way, and she's way too intrusive.  
Remember when I mentioned that the servant witches have a  
base here? Well, she's apart of them, and I'm on her list of  
people to distrust because I kept her from getting a read on  
me._

_Oh, here's some pictures. The first one is Damon. God, I'm  
hoping that he's open to having a girlfriend, because I so would  
like to be it. And I think it would be safe. I mean, he is a vampire,  
but then, it's not like it's been tested before... _

_The second picture is Stefan and his girlfriend Caroline, and the  
third is Jeremy and his 'girlfriend' Vicki. The fourth is Vicki's brother,  
Matt and Tyler. The dark-haired guy on the right is Tyler. The fifth  
picture is Jeremy's history teacher, Alaric Saltzman. I have to admit  
I can see why she wants to date him. He's kind of hot, if you're into  
older men like that._

_Anyway, that's the update here. How is everything over there? _

_Miss you,  
Elena_

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I didn't want to attain the attention of the guys in the room, because I got the feeling that if I did, they'd ask what I was laughing about. Still, I found her message to be completely funny. I also wasn't surprised that she was being pervy. Between the two of us, she actually was the more daring one, willing to date other mutants who knew about her ability, and were willing to take the risk. Those relationships didn't last long, and they were few and far inbetween, but she still had them.

I was a bit surprised that she was actually meeting some vampires who'd been turned by Katerina, and didn't want to kill her. That was a big surprise, especially considering that, since she really started looking like Katerina, it seemed vamps with a beef towards Katerina were popping up all over the place. Of course, I got the feeling that, because of why the Salvatore brothers turned to begin with, was the reason why they didn't want to kill her. And, thinking about that, made me worry for Elena.

Shaking my head as I made the decision to call her the next day to talk about that, I decided to save the pictures for another day, though I just had to see what was so special about Damon's picture, and opened it. My eyes widened, and the first words out of my mouth were "Yummy." I immediately blushed as I caught the attention the game players, who paused in order to look at me.

"What's 'yummy'?" Jacob asked.

"Nothing to interest you," I said, giving him a glare that said not to continue asking. He shrugged as he turned back to the game, but still looked suspicious. I grabbed a cookie off the plate next to me – having almost forgotten about them – and went back to look the picture. I immediately saw why Elena was interested in him. He was handsome. He wasn't quite as handsome as Edward, but definitely among his league. He also looked like a Prince of Darkness, wearing all black. His hair was dark colored, going just past his earlobes and arranged in a casual way. But it was his eyes that caught my attention. They were such a intense light blue that just promised a good time to any lucky lady.

It made me worry even more after seeing that, because, again, I didn't want to see Elena hurt.

Clicking out of the picture, I wrote a quick e-mail to Elena, mentioning that I'd call her after school the next day if I remembered – I didn't know if something would come up or not – and power down the laptop just in time to see Seth kicking Jacob's ass at the race they were doing. Standing up, I announced that I would play the winner next race as Seth won his race.

Taking the controller from Jacob and unhooking the nunchuk from it and set about choosing my character. I chose – as I always did since unlocking her – Rosalina, who was paired with one of her motorcycles. I looked at Seth, a challenging look on my face. He returned it, and we both looked at the screen, going for what was supposedly the hardest track in the game, Rainbow Road.

It was pretty easy for me to do this track. Being my favorite and most played track, I easily outran him, though he did put up a fair fight. He pouted when he lost as I powered the game system down, returning everything to their correct place, including the controllers, and then shooing the boys out of the room. It turned out that it was just the right time, for Emily was coming up the stairs.

"Oh," she said when she noticed that all of us were coming out of my room. "I was just coming to get you all. It's time to go."

We headed down the stairs, saying bye to each other as they walked out of the house. Charlie, who'd called bye to them so that he could just ignore the fact that Jacob was the person who'd be driving the truck, waited until I closed the door.

"So, what did you think?" he asked.

"They seemed nice. A bit intrusive, but nice," I said.

"What did the boys do up there?" he asked.

"Played my Wii," I told him. "I mostly read my e-mail before wiping the floor with Seth. After that, we started heading down here."

He seemed indecisive for a moment, then seemed to decide to take the plunge, and I got a curious foreboding feeling that made me feel like I should turn and head straight up to my room before he could ask his question..

"What did you think about Jacob?" he asked, and I realized why I felt the need to run. My father was indeed going to try and set me up with Jacob. Oh, how I wanted to laugh. Me, date Jacob? Yeah, he seemed nice, but he was not my type at all. First of all, he was human, which meant a probability of going into a coma with bare skin contact between us, and next, he was younger than me, by just a few too many years. I have nothing against women who liked to date younger men, but I prefer, if I did date in general, that those I dated were either closer to my age – like, only a month or two younger than me – or older than me. My mind immediately flashed to Edward at that, for some reason, and I mentally shook his image away.

"Jacob?" I said, thinking fast. "He's nice, but I'm going to have to nip his attraction for me in the bud before any friendship could be had."

Charlie looked a bit taken aback at my words.

"Um...why? Is there something wrong" he asked, sounding surprised.

"I don't date guys younger than me, at least, not that young," I said. "He's what, fourteen, fifteen at most?"

"He's fifteen," Charlie said.

"Yeah, meaning he's no where near the range of guys I'll date age if they're younger than me," I answered. "I'm very picky about the guys I date." _I prefer then mutant or knowing that I'm one and not disliking it, and, oh yeah, preferable able to stand my ability without them going into a coma._ I didn't add that last part out loud, knowing that Charlie would get confused. Again, like with the whole Renée think, he didn't know about my abilities or the fact that I was a witch. I didn't know why I didn't tell him yet, except for this little fact: Renée had rejected me after learning of my mutant abilities. I didn't want to chance that Charlie would do the same.

"Anyway," I said, yawning. "I'm going to get ready for bed. Night."

"Night," he said, still looking a bit shocked at my blunt confession that there would be no Jacob and Bella dating in the future. Hopefully, that would make sure that he knew I wasn't kidding, and not to attempt to try and set me up on any dates with Jacob. I'd hate for Jacob to be hurt emotionally by me because our fathers decided to attempt to control our love lives.

* * *

The next morning was different. It was the light, which appeared much brighter than I'd seen so far, though it wasn't quite pure sunlight. Excited at the idea that I could ride my bike today, I hurried to the window. And groaned when I realized that, sometime during the night, all the rain from yesterday had frozen over, making the roads pretty treacherous to drive through. There would be no way I could drive my bike in this.

Frowning, I went through my closet, choosing a black shirt that had long sleeves and was was cold shouldered as well, with a picture of a Franken-bunny-bear on it. There were two thin silver chains over the open part in the shoulders on each side. A pair of elbow length gloves went on before it, of course, and then I pulled on a pair of regular blue jeans, my knee high heeled boots being hidden under the flared legs, the hems of which just barely kept from touching the ground.

Charlie was still there when I went down stairs, my bag in hand, though he was near the door, getting ready to leave.

"Good morning," he said.

"Morning," I told him.

"I'm probably going to be late getting back today. I'm heading down to Masen Country. A security guard down there got killed by some kind of animal," he said.

"An animal?" I questioned.

"You're not in New York anymore Bella," he said. "Don't worry, though. I don't think it'll get close to town. When things like this happen, multiple search parties are set out to keep it from happening again."

I nodded, though I wasn't fully convinced that it would be safe. Still, in all honesty, this was actually something that he was probably used to doing, and I doubted he wouldn't have a group with him, as it would be stupid if he didn't.

"All right, then?" I said. "What time should I expect you home, then?"

"Probably around dark," he answered, walking to the door. "Bye."

"Bye," I said, heading to the kitchen to get something to eat. It was still pretty early, but I wouldn't be able to drive my normal speed because of the ice, so I'd have to leave earlier than I usually did.

Heading out with a Pop-tart in my hand, I gave my bike a mourning glance before getting into my truck. I slowly made my way to the school, not having much trouble driving the icy road. I turned into the parking lot and found a spot, about three cars down from Edward's Volvo. As I got out of the truck, something on my tire caught my eye, and I leaned over to see what it was. It was some snow chains. Charlie must've put them on. I felt my tears begin to sting my eyes at the unexpected sight. I hadn't expected Charlie to do that. I mean, who knew what time he actually got up to do it, since I doubted this was an easy thing. I wasn't completely used to an older male caring for me like that who wasn't Logan.

I shook my head to keep from letting the tears fall down, beginning to walk away as I thought of how to repay him for doing that. I had just caught sight of Angela, and was about to head on over to her when a horrible screeching noise pierced my ears. Everything seemed to slow down for a moment as I looked around. I caught sight of Edward with his sisters and brothers, all looking calm as Rosalie and Alice grabbed a hold of Jasper and began herding him away. Then my eyes caught a blue van – one that I recognized as being Tyler's – skidding across the parking lot after hitting a patch of ice way to fast. Following it's path with my eyes, I felt horrified when I realized that it was going to hit a tan car, and that Angela was frozen between them.

I didn't think, my reactions immediately reverting to those I'd developed during the blood war last year. I didn't bother to remember that I was trying to keep a low profile, and that I shouldn't do what I was going to. All I knew was that I couldn't let Angela die. I liked her, and she didn't deserve to die because of idiot who thought driving fast on icy roads was a good idea.

Using a mutant ability I'd borrowed and kept from one who could run real fast, I launched myself at Angela, reaching her before the van did. I wrapped my arm around her waist, practically throwing the two of us away. However, it seemed the van was, for some reason, wanting to still hit Angela as it hit and bounced off of the tan car, one end still swinging towards us. Without thinking again, I held out a hand to stop it, bracing Angela up so that she didn't end up hitting her head against the ground. I felt her eyes on me as the van hit my hand, stopping it's movement as a dent formed in the metal.

As what I'd just done caught up to me and I looked at Angela's face, seeing her surprise as her eyes darted to the dent in the van where my hand was still laying. Then, she looked at me, and what I'd just done began filtering through my mind. How was I going to explain this to her?

* * *

_**All right, there you go. Now, first off, I know that the rest of the conversation between Bella and Edward was probably not what you were thinking. I know I probably made it sound as if it was going to be dramatic in the last chapter, and I'm sorry for that. I hope that you like the insight to the way I'm making Renée in this fic. I haven't decided if she's actually going to show up or just continue being mentioned yet.  
**_

_**The meeting with Billy and that gang was the hardest for me to write, mostly because I just wasn't sure how to go about it. I wanted it to show that Jacob got an instant rush on Bella, and how Bella feels about that. I do not plan on having Bella flirt with Jacob at all. She will get along with him - as I am going to be a whole lot nicer to the wolves in this fic than I am in my Burn For You one - but there will be no crazy triangle like in the series. Oh, and how many people figured out which Quileutes were going to be visiting?  
**_

_**The e-mail from Elena was the part that just didn't want to stop. Well, more like I wasn't sure when to stop it. I'm hoping that, as you can see, it gives a hint as to where in the VD universe everything is happening. I mean, Vicki's still alive, Tanner's dead, and the Miss Mystic Falls has not happened yet. Since they don't really give out dates of when everything happens - at least, I really haven't seen a date for it - I'm mostly deciding my own dates for when certain things happen, and rearranging things so that some actually don't happen at all. Also, as you can see, I'm setting up having Bella go and meet the VD gang at some point in time. Oh, and what did you think of Bella's reaction to seeing the picture of Damon? For those who think it was a bit OOC, sorry, I just couldn't get it out of my head when I thought about it.  
**_

_**Oh, and when I refer to Katherine Peirce, I tend to call her by her actual name Katerina Petrova, so, if your wondering who Katerina is, that's who. I don't know why, but I prefer to call her Katerina instead of Katherine. It's just sounds prettier, and, being her real name, I guess I just want to use it over Katherine.  
**_

_**And now, for the end part. What did you think of the twist? Did you like that it was Angela who was almost crushed, and that Bela was the one who saved her? I will admit that doing that was actually an idea that hit while I was thinking about what to do about the van accident. I was originally going to keep it the way it happened in the book at first, but then realized that there was no point in doing it like that, because I feel that was just another cog in getting Bella to wonder what Edward was, and showing her that he wasn't human. Then I thought about doing it where both Bella and Edward hold out hands to stop the van and letting Edward know that she wasn't quite human, but that sounded familiar to me, and I realized that the reason for that was that it happened in another story, and I wasn't going to steal the idea of that, so that idea got scrapped. Of course, when that happen, I realized that I wanted it to be a reverse thing, where Edward is in Bella's place of realizing that the other isn't as human as they'd thought.  
**_

_**I decided to change it to Angela when I realized that because...well, I can't say right now, but when I realized it, I decided that Angela would have a bigger part in this than originally planned. And then, of course, the idea of Bella having a human friend knowing that she's a mutant - the witch thing probably won't come up yet, I don't know - and that she doesn't have to hide from someone as much, well, that interested me quite a bit. So Angela became my van victim, and, though her mind, Edward will know what Bella did, though he won't have his answers, as Bella will, upon finally talking to Angela, shield her mind from him so that he doesn't learn yet.  
**_

_**Oh, and the blood war mentioned in this chapter is the war from Harry Potter. I'm not sure if it's actually called that or not, but I'm deciding, for this series, that it is. And it's mentioned because I kind of needed a reason for Bella to feel a need to save Angela without thinking, and, well, having reflexes that drive her because of the blood war was the only thing that worked in my mind.  
**_

_**Anyway, mutant powers revealed in this chapter:  
**_

_**Bella - Super Speed (Borrowed Power) and Super Strength (Borrowed Power)  
**_

_**Playlist for this chapter.  
**_

_**1. Let Me Go - 3 Doors Down  
2. Respect - Aretha Franklin  
3. You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin  
4. Losing Grip - Avril Lavigne  
5. Unwanted - Avril Lavigne  
6. Anything but Ordinary - Avril Lavigne  
7. Happy Ending - Avril Lavigne  
8. Nobody's Home - Avril Lavigne  
9. I Remain - Alanis Morissette  
10. Uninvited - Alanis Morissette  
11. Awakening - Celtic Women  
12. Black is the Color - Celtic Women  
**_

_**Next chapter will follow immediately after this one, as this one did to the prvious one. I will be working as hard as I can on it, and I hope that people will like it when I do get it out.  
**_

_**Please, Please, Please Review, I really want to know what you thought of this chapter.  
**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness  
**_


	7. Aftermath, Argument, and Invitation

_**Okay, finally done with this chapter. I really wanted it up earlier, but I was unable to get my wish up until now. It took me a while to figure out what it was that I wanted in it, and I finally decided on it just a few days ago. I've had this done for about two days now, though - I was holding it while I got a but of a head start onto the next chapter, in hopes that it won't take as long to type out.**_

_**Anyway, enjoy.**_

* * *

**Aftermath, Argument, and Invitation**

* * *

It seemed almost as if ages had passed before the screaming started. I had straightened the two of us from our crouched position by that time, shielding Angela's mind within the same moment, aware of the fact that Edward would have most likely been reading it, enough to have noticed what I'd done. However, on the off chance that he hadn't been listening to her – and, if I was lucky, he would have been more focused on his siblings than Angela – I didn't want him to know just how I'd been able to save Angela as I had. I just wasn't ready for him to know much about me at the moment – I didn't know if I ever would be ready for such a thing, though, if we continued talking together a lot, I had no doubt that I would eventually tell him about knowing what he was, among other things.

Since we weren't completely wedged in, I pulled Angela's unresisting body with me as I made my way to my truck. As we were seen, everyone seemed to surround us, asking if we were okay. Just over the questions to us, I heard someone mention getting to Tyler – another person yelled out for someone to call nine-one-one. I pushed my way through the crowd, still pulling Angela with me, saying that we were okay repeatedly. Some people tired to stop us, not listening to my words as they tried to force me to stop and sit down to wait for the ambulance and police. I pushed them away, telling them that we were okay and to move when they continued to try and stop me.

Finally, though, as Tyler became more focal in the minds of everyone, I was able to get us through the crowd and to my truck, pushing Angela to the passenger door. As I was walking around to the driver's side, I happened to look over toward Edward, a strange scene meeting my eyes. Before, just before I realized that Angela was about to be crushed, they had looked as though they were going to shepherd Jasper away from the scene, before it could happen – understandable, considering that they'd somehow knew that there would be blood spilled. Now, though, they were no longer holding onto Jasper. Instead, they were surrounded and holding Edward back, who was looking straight at me, his eyes wide with shock. I saw them flicker between me and Angela, who had started to shake as she sat in the passenger's seat. I knew immediately what was wrong; he's always been able to hear Angela before, but now, since I was shielding her, it was no longer possible.

And I knew that he knew that I had something to do with it.

I had bigger things to worry about, though. Since his eyes hadn't once moved to the van, I was hoping her hadn't actually seen what had happened through her eyes, before the crash or after it. So, hopefully, he was unaware of any of my other little talents – talents that I shouldn't have, but did because of my true mutant gift. And, in all honesty, I was hoping that I was right; plus, I was a bit more concerned with Angela at the moment than him. And, as I got into my truck, I saw that she was starting to shake. I needed to get us away from the school before she became hysterical. It wouldn't do to have anyone hearing what she may or may not say – it would defeat the purpose of not letting people know about me. While I knew that I couldn't hide it from Angela – unless I wanted to Obliviate her – that didn't mean I was all for everyone else knowing.

Hopefully, I could convince her not to tell others. I didn't think she would, but just because someone was nice to you when they thought you were normal doesn't mean that it's the same when they do know that your not. It was nothing against her, but I'd seen others deal with something like that too many times not to be wary about it.

I had to admit, I was surprised about how quickly Angela got out of her shocked state. I wasn't sure what caused it or anything, but I was glad that she was clam as she did so. She didn't freak, or become hysterical. Instead, she took deep breaths, letting her mind process everything that had happened within that short space of time – basically, she was acting like I would in a situation like this. Then, as she got control of herself, she, rather calmly, asked, "What was that?"

I bit my lip, my grip on the wheel tightening a bit as I thought about how best to phrase it.

"It's...not something that can be told while driving," I finally said, chickening out a bit. I was deathly afraid. Most people who were non-mutant were often hostile to mutants like me. Even magicals could be like that as well. And, while Angela seemed to have an open mind, that didn't mean that there wasn't a limit. For some people, hostility towards mutants was ingrained, to the point that they'd turn against someone at the slightest hint of them not being normal.

"When can you tell me?" Angela asked. I thought for a moment.

"Are you willing to come over to my house after we're done at the hospital?" I asked her. She thought for a moment, then nodded. "I'll tell you there, then."

"Okay," she said. I had to admit, her willingness to come was surprising, as it would have been smarter for her to refuse. For all she knew, I could be someone who was willing to become hostile at the moment, as I was feeling threatened at the moment. Of course, the fact at I'd just saved her life might have something to do with it. After all, it would be wasteful to save her if I was planning on killing her. And, perhaps, she was one of those who were genuine about not having any prejudice, towards anyone one. Maybe it was a combination of those two things that afforded me her trust.

As we turned into the parking lot of the hospital, I was surprised to see a doctor already standing at the doors, looking as though he was waiting for us. It was easy to tell ho it was straight away. He was handsome, more so than any movie star I'd ever seen, but it was his beyond pale skin, the slight bruises underneath his eyes, and the golden toned eyes that told me who he was exactly. I had to wonder why Dr. Cullen was the one who was greeting us, for, as I parked, he stepped towards my truck.

"Hello," I said as I got out.

"Hello," he said. "I'm Dr. Cullen. My son Edward called, said that you two had a small mishap." He sounded a bit confused at that, probably wondering why Edward had bothered calling him about this, and I got the feeling that Edward hadn't actually told him what had happened either.

"Oh," I said, following him inside with Angela. "It's nothing, really. One of the other students just thought it would be a great idea to drive into the parking lot going fifty miles an hour, and hit the ice wrong. Angela and I were in it's path, but I managed to pull her out of the way. I don't think we have any scrapes, bumps, or brui– "

I was cut off by the door opening, a small cry of "Bella," coming from that direction. I turned around to see Edward standing there, looking worried. I was surprised to see him – he must've gotten into his car and drove over here straight after we left.

"Edward," I said, giving him a fake smile. Not that I wasn't happy to see him, but, at the moment, I didn't want to see him. I was more concerned with getting Angela and myself out of the place and over to my house, so that Angela could ask her questions, and I could know if I was keeping or losing a friend. I knew that I could always modify her memory, but I liked her too much to do that and besides, that would be the old British Wizarding World's answer, meaning that it would be wrong to do.

However, I saw that Dr. Cullen was leading Angela away – probably to check and make sure that she was okay – and Edward grabbed my arm, pulling me to a quieter hallway.

"Is there something wrong, Edward?" I asked him. He didn't stop to answer my question, continuing to lead me until he found what he was looking for. Afterward, he turned toward me, gripping my shoulders carefully.

"What were you thinking, putting yourself in front of the van like that?!" he said, looking at me wide-eyed, obviously frantic. I reached up, grabbing his hands and, forcefully, pulling them off of my shoulders.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was standing right next to Angela when the van came. If anything, I made sure to try and pull myself away from it," I said, lying through my teeth. He frowned at me.

"No you weren't," he said. "You were by your car when the van came into the parking lot. I saw you."

"No, I wasn't," I told him, giving a loot that suggested that I thought he might've hit his head on something.

"Bella," he started, but, before he could say anything, he looked over my shoulder. I turned to see Dr. Cullen and Angela heading our way. I smiled, relieved to see them, as it meant that I could leave and get out of this interrogation that Edward was performing. I went to walk towards her, but Edward grabbed my hand to stop me.

"Bella, I know that you weren't near Angela at the time," he said quietly. "However, I don't want to argue with you about that. What I want to know is how did you do it? How did you get to Angela so fast, and stop that van from crushing the two of you?"

"Edward, I told you already," I said, sounding cross.

"I watched you," he said insistently. I mentally sighed. Why couldn't he just realize that I did not want to talk about it, that what I was saying was the story that needed to get around? Why did he have to be so persistent? I conveniently ignored the fact that I would be like that as well had it been me in his or Angela's shoes.

"Look, I've got to go. I drove Angela hear, and neither of us are going back to school. I've got to get her home," I said, before he could continue his questioning. Then, I bit my lip, deciding to give him a small bit. "Look, I need you not to question me about this. The reason why I did what I did is because I wasn't going to let Angela die or get hurt, and that's all you need to know. As, as you can tell, obviously I'm fine. She's fine as well, and nothing bad happened."

I yanked my hand out of his, walking away before he could do anything else. "Bye," I muttered to him, rejoining Angela where she stood with Dr. Cullen.

"It was nice meeting you, sir," I said, motioning with my head for us to head out. She gave me a curious look, as if wondering what Edward wanted, but followed after me without asking any questions. I took a glance behind us to see Edward standing there, looking towards us with a mixture of emotions on his face, curiosity among them. Dr. Cullen was standing next to him, also watching us. I waved to the two of them before they disappeared from my sight.

The drive to my house with Angela was quick, much quicker than I really wanted. I really didn't have any time to prepare myself with what I was going to tell her; then again, I doubted this was really something that would be easy to say anyway. After parking and letting her into the house, I headed straight upstairs, motioning her to follow.

"Nice room," she said as she walked through as took everything in.

"Thanks," I said, walking over to my bed. I motioned for her to take seat at my desk chair. I waited for her to say something.

"So, can you tell me now?" she asked.

"I'm a mutant," I said.

"I thought that would be it,"she muttered. "So, I take it that you have the gift of being extra strong or something like that?"

I shook my head. "No, it's just a bonus due to what I can do," I said. "There really isn't a term to what I can do. The basis of it is that I can absorb the psyche and abilities of any human being, including mutants, though skin contact. I absorb memories, knowledge, talents, personality, and, sometimes, physical traits of someone, which I can duplicate in myself to change my appearance slightly, and, even if the contact is brief, I will keep almost everything I absorb.

"What I am mostly unable to keep are personality and physical traits of a person, as we as any mental ability that a mutant may have – I only keep those for a certain amount of time. However, I can let some things go by choice, if I don't want or feel that I need them. Again, I do have to keep them for a certain amount time, just like the things that I am unable to keep – I think the ratio is every ten seconds of skin contact equals one minute of me being able to use anything I absorb.

"The ability is active constantly, and I do not know how to not have it that way, meaning I can not touch a single human being without this happening, and, in the cases of non-mutants, if I keep skin to skin contact with one for a certain amount of time – and it's not a very long one – they tend to end up in comas. In fact, though it hasn't be proven yet, it is suspected that I can end up killing someone because of this, so I tend to avoid skin to skin contact with others, particularly non-mutants. In fact, the only person I willingly have skin to skin contact with is my best friend/sister Elena.

"I also have one other, natural, ability, though it kind of pales in comparison to what I consider to be my main ability. I have this mental shield around my mind, which is also active constantly, which protects me from pretty much every mental ability out there. The only thing it doesn't protect me from is when someone telepathically talks to me."

I stopped there, a bit shocked at how easily and freely I had given the information. I hadn't actually meant to say it all, just give a hint of what it was that I could do, but then, I suppose, by telling her as much as I did, she'd understand it a bit better, and have less questions to ask about it. It seemed that I was right.

"So, that's why you wear the gloves?" she said. I nodded.

"How does you mental shield work, exactly? I mean, how do you even know it's there?" she asked.

"I know because I know quite a few mind readers, all whom ended up confused when they couldn't read my mind," I said. "As for how it works, it's basically two layers. One is always around my mind. I can shrink it down to open my mind to others if I wish, but that's all I can really do with it. As for the other layer, I can only stretch it, to include others within in it. I can pick and chose who I protect – I liken it to a rope with a lasso at the end. I can by-pass others to get to one person and protect them, even if there's several people blocking the person from my sight, and there's a certain distance from me. And I can do this to an unlimited number of people.

"In fact, I'm actually doing it right now, to you. I have been since before we left the school, truthfully."

"Really? Why?" she asked, and I could see that any apprehension she may have been feeling toward me was gone.

"Well, I won't name names, because it's not my secret to tell, but there is another mutant at the school," I said, lying a bit. Edward wasn't a mutant, but I wasn't going to tell her that. "And, well, they know about the mental shield, but they don't know about the other talent, and I would rather they not know it, in all honesty. So, after I rescued you, I shielded your mind right away, so that they wouldn't know."

Angela looked thoughtful, as if wondering who it was, before shaking her head.

"Why are you willing to have skin to skin contact with Elena?" she asked, sounding as though she just remembered that it was mentioned.

"Elena's abilities are like mine, only, where I'm able to permanently keep physical abilities and block mental abilities from being used on me, she's the opposite. Mental abilities are what she can permanently keep, while she had a physical shield around her body. And, while it's two layered like mine, she actually has to concentrate a bit to keep both layers around her. The inner layer can only be used to protect her, while the outer can be expanded to protect others, but while the inner one can be called up quickly, the outer one takes quite a bit of concentration to use," I said. "It's why she rarely uses it, unless it's absolutely needed."

She nodded, and went quite, thinking. Silence lasted for a while, and I wondered what she was deciding.

"I won't tell," she said. "And I still consider you my friend. I won't and say that I might not be a bit...wary every now and then, but, for the most part, I don't really care that your a mutant. You're still my friend, plus, considering that you just saved my life today, it would seem pretty horrible of me to just brush you off after that."

I smiled at her.

"Thanks," I said, truly meaning it. She ended up hanging out at m house for about an extra hour before I drove her home. It was as she pulled up that she realized something.

"Oh, no," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"My car, it's still at the school," she said. "Plus, I don't know what damage the van did to it."

"Well, if you can get dropped off at my house, I'll take you to school tomorrow. After all, we wouldn't want everyone to think that there actually was something serious that happened during the accident," I said.

"My Dad does pass by the street," she said, thinking. "I think I can get him to at least drop me off at the end of the street. It'll be early, though. He tend to go in around six-thirty."

"Charlie will be up by then," I said, shrugging. "If he's not, the key is under the eaves, so you can just let yourself in. And I'll let Charlie know so that he doesn't freak out if you do show up. Just call if you will or not tonight, so I can tell Charlie if it's a definite that you'll be there tomorrow morning or not."

"Okay," she said, hopping out of the truck. I waved bye to her before heading back home. As it was still pretty early, I didn't feel a need to rush to do anything, and headed up to my room, pulling out my phone as I did so. Immediately, I pulled up the option to send out a new message. There was no way I was keeping the fact that Angela knew from my friends, no way at all. Besides, since she knew about me, I wanted to make sure that they wouldn't mind if I accidentally let it out that one of them was a mutant as well. And I knew that I most likely would end up mentioning it to her, if she asked.

Once I finished typing out my rather long message to her, I sighed, setting my phone down next to me, and fell backwards onto my bed, thinking about all that had happened today. Strangely enough, I didn't feel anything but relief that Angela knew about my abilities and had accepted them. And I didn't feel any fear that Angela might change her mind, mostly because, in the last few weeks of knowing her, it seemed like something that was out of character for her to do.

After examining what happened with Angela, my mind immediately went over to Edward, and his over reaction, for that was what it was. I didn't understand it. Sure, we were friends, but that really didn't explain the reaction Edward had. The way he acted was as if there was a bigger connection between us, much bigger than there actually was. I wasn't sure of what to think about that, at all. And, at the moment, I didn't want to. So, after checking to make sure that there were no responses to the text I'd sent to my friend, I headed down the stairs, deciding that, with the extra time I was suddenly given, that I could afford to take the time to make something really good for dinner, and set about working on it.

* * *

About ten minutes after school would have ended, while I still working on the meat for what I had decided to make, a knock came from the door. I paused, my hands still in the meat as another knock sounded.

"Hold on," I called, cleaning my hands off before heading to the door. I pulled on my gloves as I hurried over to the door. Opening it, I was surprised to see Jasper and Edward standing there, Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett still in their car. I looked at the two guys confused.

"Um...Hi," I said, not knowing what else to say. I leaned against my door, looking from one to the other. Edward kept his eyes on me, still worried about what had happened earlier. Jasper, however, was looking at the doorway, and I knew that he had seen one of the sets of runes I'd used there, for he was studying one of them. I didn't worry about his figuring out why it was there; I couldn't see a reason for him to do so, as the runes I'd used weren't common ones. The worse that would happen is that he might know what they were.

I waited for either of them to say something, but neither seemed inclined.

"Hey, guys, what are you doing here?" I finally asked, after another two minutes had passed without any sign of anything happening. That seemed to get their attention.

"Oh, I came to let you know what we had to do in class today," Jasper said, handing me what he was holding in his hand.

"Thank you," I said, glancing down to see that it wasn't anything hard. I turned to Edward, ignoring Jasper for the moment.

"Mr. Banner asked that I come and give this to you," he said, handing me a form. "You need to get your father to sign that, in order to go with the rest of the class to a plant nursery."

"Oh, okay," I said, taking the form from him. "Thanks for bringing it by."

"No problem," he told me, and I saw Jasper look at Edward a bit suspiciously for some reason. Edward looked as though he was about to start asking me questions once again, but an impatient beep from his car kept him from doing that as we all looked to see the fact that his siblings were becoming impatient with us, based on the fact that Rosalie had been the one to honk the horn.

"Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow," I told them. They returned the sentiment, saying bye as they turned and headed to their car. I saw Edward glance back at me several times before I close the door. Walking back to the kitchen, I placed what I'd been handed down, wondering vaguely if Angela had been brought a permission slip or not. I hoped that she did, since I didn't think that it would be very nice if no one brought one to her.

* * *

Charlie, having heard about what happen, was in a bit of a panic when he came home that night. It was only the fact that I was obviously fine – and that I admitted that the reason that I didn't go back to the school was because I didn't want to deal with the crowd I'd most likely have around me if I did – that calmed him down. He wasn't all that upset over my ditching school, though I knew it was mostly because he was relieved that I was all right. Once he had calmed, and I told him what actually happened – his panic had apparently become bad because of all the gossip and rumors about what had happen, which had been twisted until it was mostly untrue, just additions to make it much more interesting – I told him what happened.

He was of two minds about my rescue of Angela – both proud and scolding. While he was glad to know that I was willing to do what I could to save a friend, he did not like the fact that I had almost put my own life in danger – as far as he knew – to do so. That resulted in a slightly comical lecture from him, as he alternated between scolding me and praising me. I finally escaped to my room to keep from laughing out loud in his face because of it.

Once I was sure that I had myself under control, I headed back downstairs, just as the phone rang. Picking it up, I realized that it was Angela who had called, informing me that she would need a ride to the school tomorrow. I said alright, then asked her if she had gotten a visit from someone, mentioning that there was apparently a permission slip that she one of her parents to sign. She told me that her lab partner had brought it by just moments after I left. We talked for a bit before saying bye, and I headed to the living room.

"Hey, Dad," I said as I entered. He turned his head to me. "Angela's going to be here tomorrow morning. She'll most likely be here before you leave or arrive just as you're leaving. I'm giving her a ride to school, so don't be surprised when if you see her. I told her where the key is if no one answers the door when she arrives, so she won't have to stay outside while waiting for me. Okay?"

"Yeah," he said, turning back to his game as I headed up the stairs.

"Night!" I called.

"Night," he answered back.

* * *

As I was pulling into the parking lot – a bit later than I should have been – we saw that Angela's car had been towed away, just as Charlie had informed her about this morning, when she arrived just as he had come downstairs to eat something before leaving. We also saw two school buses, which would be taking us to plant nursery. Angela and I got out of the truck, and she walked over to Jessica and some of the others, who immediately wrapped their arms around her in a hug upon seeing her. She shook them off for a few moments, handing in her and my permission slips to Mr. Banner, which I had given her before we got out of my truck. I yawned, leaning up against my truck tiredly.

I hadn't slept well the previous night. And it wasn't my normal nightmares that kept me up – in fact, it wasn't even a nightmare. No, what I had dreamt of was something rather unusual – at least for me. I looked over to the area where the van had almost crushed Angela before I had come, seeing the skid marks left from it. As I did, parts of my dream floated back to me.

Me being the one standing there, instead of Angela... Edward saving me the way I'd saved Angela... Us at the hospital, where he did his best to convince me that I hadn't seen him actually save me, the way I had tried to convince him that I had been standing next to Angela the entire time... Him walking away after telling me that he hoped I enjoyed disappointment in response to my statement of not giving up on trying to figure him out...

However, it was none of that which had freaked me out. No, it was what happened next, after the last bit. I had dreamt that Edward had been able to get into my room, me waking to discover him standing at the foot of my bed, just staring at me, as if he was merely a statue. It didn't freak me out in my dream, as if I had been expecting him to be there. No, instead of freaking out, I had leaned forward, sitting up and reaching for him, grabbing him by the shirt he wore and pulled him down to me on the best, our lips connecting in a kiss that had quickly become passionate.

Just thinking about it had me groaning softly, wondering what was wrong with me. I didn't dream about guys – of course, there had never really been a guy I was interested in... _No_ I told myself sternly, erasing the rest of that thought from my mind. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we had skin to skin contact. Would he be affected the same way a human would? The idea was laughable, and yet, I was afraid that it might actually be true.

"I need everyone's permission slips, okay?" I heard Mr. Banner say as my eyes found their way to where Edward – with two of his siblings – was at, walking towards everyone else. I saw Edward look at me for a moment as they came closer before Mike stepped in front of me, blocking my view of them.

"Look at you, huh? You're alive," he said, his voice changing slightly at the last phrase, indicating that he was joking as he said it.

"I wasn't in any trouble," I told him. "I have good reflexes."

I notice Edward seemed to pause slightly, not moving an inch.

"Yeah," he said, suddenly becoming nervous. "Now I wanted to ask you, you know, if, you know..."

I tuned him out, my eyes on Edward, who had turned towards me slightly, looking at me.

"So, what do you think?" Mike ask, bringing me back to the conversation at hand. I forced myself to focus on him instead of Edward.

"About what?" I asked, feeling a bit apologetic for having ignored him. He was very nervous, and I knew that making him repeat whatever question it was that he'd ask wasn't what he wanted to do.

"Do you want to go?" he asked again. "To the dance? With...me?"

The last bit was said kind of haltingly. I was crafty in hiding my horror. I despised dances, and had actually forgotten about this one – the Spring Dance that was to start off the spring vacation for this school. I thought about it, trying to figure out an excuse, when I realized that I already had one – and it wouldn't be a complete lie.

"Oh, I... Actually, I'm have something that weekend anyway. I have something that entire week, in fact," I said. "I'm...I'm going to Mystic Falls that weekend."

Mike looked dishearted.

"Y-you can't go another weekend?" he asked, hoping to change my mind.

"Non-refundable ticket," I lied. I had no plans of flying out there, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Plus, I really didn't want to explain the reason for going there, either. He gave a understanding though disappointed nod.

"You should ask Jessica," I said. "I know she wants to go with you."

He perked up a bit at that, looking over to where she was standing. She waved to him with a smile upon noticing him looking at her. He looked back at me, smiling a little bit, though there wasn't much happiness to it.

Mr. Banner called all of us at that moment, motioning us over.

"Hey, guys, come on," he said, "We gotta go. We gotta go. Green is what? Good."

I rolled my eyes as I followed Mike over to the first bus, climbing into it as I heard Mr. Banner direct the rest of the people over to the other bus. I mentally sighed when I noticed that Edward was among though a part of me was relieved that he wasn't, having the feeling that he'd most likely ask questions that I didn't want to answer.

* * *

As we were led through through the plant nursery, I barely listened to what Mr. Banner was saying, looking at all of the plants instead. As I moved from my current position, walking around Edward – who had somehow come to be in front of me, despite having been near the back when we first arrived – suddenly spoke.

"How did you stop the van?" he asked.

I looked over to him.

"Hi, Edward, how are you today?" I asked, my tone mocking, making it clear that I found his lack of manners horrible.

"Are you going to answer my question?" he asked.

"I had an adrenaline rush. It's very common. You can Google it," I told him. He frowned, but didn't press it, clearly hearing that I didn't want to talk about it.

"What's in Mystic Falls?" he asked instead. I looked over to him, confused.

"How do you know about that?" I asked, then remembered the fact that he had been there in the parking lot this morning. He must've, for some reason, been listening in on the conversation I had with Mike.

My question seemed to stump him. He finally just said, "You didn't answer my question."

"Well, I think you're being rather rude right now. I mean, I have no obligation to answer your questions anyway. Plus, you haven't even bothered to say hi, so..." I trailed off.

"Hi," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you want to know, anyway?" I asked. He shrugged, and I shook my head.

"Virginians. That's what's in Mystic Falls," I said, turning to him. Unfortunately, I hadn't been looking where I was going, and my foot ended up getting slightly tangled in a hose that was on the ground. I stumbled, about to fall, when Edward grabbed onto me, keeping me upright. I looked at him, to say thank you, when he snapped, "Can you watch where you walk?"

I looked at him, confused, and slightly angered by his manner.

"If you hadn't distracted me, I would have been able to avoid it," I snapped back at him, turning away, intent on ignoring him as I quickly waked forward, a gap having formed between us and those in front of us.

"Look, I'm sorry I'm being rude today," he said. "I just...think it's the best way."

"For what?" I asked, confused at to what he meant by that as I turned to him. However, I wasn't given an answer, for Jessica came bounding up to me.

Bella!" she said excitedly, not seeming to realize that Edward and I had been talking in her excitement. "Guess who just asked me to the spring dance."

"Who?" I asked, already having a good idea. I watched as Edward walked away, a frown on my face as I tried to decipher the meaning of his words, wondering if they had to do with him being what he was. Jessica also watch him, confused, before turning back towards him once he was out of sight.

"Yeah, I actually totally thought that Mike was gonna ask you," she said. I shook my head, not wanting to hurt her with the fact that he had asked me. We started to walk as she continued to talk, up until she rejoined her other friends. The tour of the nursery finished, I made my way outside, figuring that I would wait on the bus until it was time to leave. As I walked passed Eric in a slight tiredly daze, I was startled when a worm was put in front of my face, Eric acting as though he was younger than he was.

I shook my head, ignoring him as I walked past, making my way to one of the buses. Just as I got to them, I heard someone behind me, walking quickly, and I turned around to see Edward there.

"Bella," he said as he got closer, and noticed that I had seen him, "we shouldn't be friends."

I looked at him, surprised. However, right under the surprise was hurt. I didn't know why he would say this. I thought – despite the secrecy between us – that we were doing pretty well on our way to becoming friends. My hurt feelings began to turn mad, especially when I considered the fact that I had him something that was private.

"You really should have figured that out a little earlier," I told him, glaring. Then, I shook my head. "You know what, whatever, Edward. If that's what you want, then suit yourself. But I do have to say, next time you do this, try to make a decision before you begin ask personal questions that you have no need to know."

Then, because I was very angry, I was unable to keep myself from showing it in another way, and, without thinking about it, I balled my hand into a fist, punching him just hard enough that he would be able to feel it – in fact, if he was human, where I had hit would have begun to swell and turn colors.

He stumbled, shocked that I had been able to do that, but more so when he noticed that I wasn't jumping up and down in pain after doing that. What was more, I was sure that he had also realized that there was something else missing; the fact was, I shouldn't have been able to hit him hard enough to make him move, and he should have been able to hear bones breaking in my hand from the actions. The fact that it hadn't happened most likely filled him up with more questions, but his brother and sister arrived then.

"Hi," Alice said, smiling. I couldn't see anything that would suggest that she had seen my actions, though I knew that she could have easily composed herself before walking over here. Her eyes flickered between me and Edward, who was standing straight once again. She turned towards me. "Are you going to be riding with us?"

"No," I said. "My bus is full." I stalked off before anything else could be said, over to the other bus, giving the door a sharp hit so that the driver would open it so that I could get on. Before I did so, I sent another glare to Edward, who hadn't moved from where he stood.

* * *

Charlie stayed home the next day, having it off. He was in the kitchen, reading the newspaper when I came downstairs. Angela was at the table with him, eating some of the food that I'd made when I'd gotten up this morning.

"Hey," I said to her.

"Hi," she answered back, once she finished swallowing. I could tell, by the look on her face, that she was enjoying the breakfast I'd made.

"You should hurry up," I said. "We've got to leave in a few minutes."

She nodded, finishing up her last bites, before standing.

"Bye Chief Swan," she said.

"Just call me Charlie," he told her as he waved bye to us.

"Your father's rather nice," she said.

"Yeah, he's cool," I said. "Been real great since I've been here, too. Of course, I think my food might have a bit to do with that."

She could tell right away that I was just joking about the last bit.

"Do you like it here so far?" she asked.

"It's been nice. Different, but nice," I said. "I can't say I like it completely, because I miss all my friends, who I've considered to be my family for most of my life, but it's a bearable ache. You help quite a bit." Edward had helped as well – it was even easier to forget myself around him – but I wasn't going to mention that, especially considering his words the previous day. Just like the previous night, I had dreamed of him again, only this time, it was more like a nightmare. (I had been in a forest, and seen him turning and walking away from me, not seeming to notice the fact that I was repeatedly calling to him, and trying to follow him. I really didn't want to think about what that might mean.)

"Well, glad I could help," she said, smiling.

* * *

The day went pretty fast, up to lunch. I was a bit late, having taken a small shower after PE and needed extra time to put on my clothes afterward – it was a much more active day today, and the fact that I was wearing sweats over the favored shorts really hadn't helped me out all that much. Walking into the cafeteria, I could easily hear Eric talking about something from across the room. I paused for a moment, feeling eyes on me, and looked behind me suspiciously. I didn't see anyone actually looking at me, though; in fact, the one I thought had been looking at me was talking – no, arguing seemed to fit better – with the rest of his family. He looked at me briefly, not long enough for me to get a hint of his mood. I turned after seeing Jasper looking to where he was, hitching my bag back up onto my shoulder properly as I walked over to the lunch table with the others.

"Hey," Eric said upon seeing me as I placed my bag in an empty seat between Angela and Jessica. Mike and Tyler (sporting a small, white bandage on his face from the accident, which I hadn't seen the previous day) gave me a small wave. Eric commanded my attention almost immediately, before I could actually sit down.

"La Push, baby. You in?" he said. I scowled a bit.

"Should I know what that means?" I asked.

"La Push Beach down at the Quileute Rez," Mike explained. "We're all going tomorrow, after school."

"Yeah, there's a big swell coming in," Jessica added.

"And I don't just surf the Internet," Eric chimed, trying to sound cool. There were some chuckles.

"Eric, you stood up once, and it was a foam board," Jessica said, rolling her eyes.

"There's whale watching, too," Angela said, looking up at me. "Come with us."

I stole a cucumber from her plate, thinking.

"La Push, baby. It's La Push," Eric said. I rolled my eyes.

"I'll think about it if you stop saying that," I said. The others laughed. "And don't call me baby, okay?"

I didn't think anyone heard the last bit, though, as Mike immediately followed up with saying, "Seriously, dude. It's creepy."

I walked away then, barely listening to what they were saying as I headed to the salad bar to get my own food, since I didn't think Angela would appreciate me taking all of hers. Not feeling in a hurry to go back to the table, I played a bit with my bowl.

"Edible art?" I suddenly heard from beside me. Startled a bit, my hand accidentally hit the apple I had grabbed, rolling it off the counter. Edward kicked it slightly, enough for it to bounce off of his shoe. It flew upwards, and landed into his hands perfectly. I looked up at his face.

"Bella," he said in greeting, holding out the apple. I took it from him.

"Thanks," I muttered, grabbing my bowl and moving to the other side of the bar. "What are you doing over here, anyway? I mean, did you forget what you said yesterday? Did you forget my answer?"

He came a little closer to me, just enough that he could talk lowly and I'd still be able to hear him over the crowd.

"I only said that it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't wanna be," he said.

"No, you straight up said that we shouldn't be friends, nothing about how it would be better not to be," I corrected him. "And my answer still stands. Do you need a reminder of it?"

He shook his head, and I went back to making my salad. However, while he continued to stand next to me, and my curiosity over why he thought that it would be better not to be friends grew, I finally sighed, looking back at him.

"What does your whole 'it would be better if we weren't friends' mean, anyway?" I asked.

"It means that, if you were smart, you'd stay away from me," he answered. I scoffed.

"Wow, how nice. Didn't know that insulting a person's intelligence was the best way to go around making friends," I said, shaking my head. "Okay, well, let's say, for argument's sake that I'm not smart. Would you tell me the truth about why?"

"No, probably not," he said. I nodded, hearing the blank honesty in his voice.

"Why not?" I asked. He didn't answer, though I wasn't really expecting him too.

"All right, you can keep your little secrets," I said, turning back to my food. I popped a carrot into my mouth.

"It's not like I'm the only one with them," he said, and the tone of his voice had me looking at him again. "I know that you weren't telling me the truth yesterday. Care to explain why?"

"No, not really," I said.

"So, can we agree on the fact that we both have our secrets?" he asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that I won't figure yours out. I'm good at that," I told him. "And don't bother trying to tell me that you're not going to try and figure mine out. I can see it in your eyes that you want to know. And I don't think you have the control not to try and figure them out. In fact, I'm kind of curious to know what your theories are already."

"I looking at either radioactive spiders or kryptonite," he answered. I snorted.

"Reading a few comics lately," I said. "Sorry to disappoint you, but it's neither."

He shrugged, and I got the feeling that he hadn't been serious anyway. We were silent for a few moments.

"You know, I'm not going to tell you what I am, though I won't deny it if you manage to figure it out yourself," I said. "And, if you want to try this whole being friends thing, why don't we hang out sometime soon. Everyone's going to the beach tomorrow. Come with us."

He looked as though he was thinking about it. "Which beach?" he asked, a smile playing around his lips, which had started when I'd asked him to hang out.

"La Push," I answered, seeing his face change immediately.

"I don't know," he said. "I just..."

"Is there something wrong with that beach?" I asked. He didn't answer right away, and I got the feeling that he was looking for a quick answer to my question, which just made me more suspicious about it. He looked behind him, and, when I leaned over and looked myself, I noticed that Eric and Mike immediately looked away, not wanting to be caught watching us. When I looked back at him, he was looking back at me.

"It's just a little crowded," he answered.

* * *

_**Okay, as you can see, this chapter follows the movie more than the book - I decided on that because I just like the movie approach to it better than the book, and i didn't want the blood scene in it, especially since this Bella isn't like the Bella in the book when it comes to blood, therefore what happened in the book wouldn't have happened here. Also, I gave a hint of just where this is at in time, as well as how long the days between everything is. Personally, I don't want to have Edward and Bella not talking to each other for long. Oh, and since Edward doesn't know what Bella is, he's the one trying to figure things out, over it being Bella who shows signs of not being completely human and also because Bella already knows what Edward is.  
**_

_**Angela knowing about Bella was pretty much planned the minute I decided to have her be the almost smashed victim of the van accident. Of course, Angela doesn't have all the information - that'll come later. And she doesn't know about vampires or anything like that, either. She just knows that Bella is a mutant, while someone (she doesn't know who) is one as well.**_

_**Bella hitting Edward wasn't actually planned, but I could see it happening, because of just hurt she is over Edward's words, as well as angry because he's saying what he is while also knowing about some of her issues - her mother did leave some scars on her, after all. I, and therefore she, never actually planned on hitting him, though it did happen, and I kept it in because it looked good. Also, I'm sure you can imagine the questions Edward would have after that, especially since she was able to move him with the force of her hit.**_

_**Anyway, please, please, please review, I'd really like to know that people are still reading this story.**_

_**Hearts In Strangeness**_


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